Unprecedented phthalonitrile based fluorophores are reported and studied for incorporation into organic light emitting diodes. The phthalonitriles were obtained using a very simple synthetic procedure and were found to be highly fluorescent with quantum yields approaching unity; they are also thermally stable and electrochemically active. When incorporated into OLEDs as fluorescent dopants, the resulting devices have good device efficiencies and emit in the deep-blue area of the spectrum with CIE coordinates that are close to the NTSC standard for blue.