Different concentrations of Li-doped YBO3:Eu3+ phosphors have been prepared by the conventional solid state reaction method and were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence excitation and emission measurements. An intense reddish orange emission is observed under UV excitation and the emitted radiation was dominated by an orange peak at 594 nm resulted from the D-5(0) -> F-7(1) transitions of Eu3+ ions. The brightness of the YBO3:Eu3+ phosphor was found greatly improved with Li-doping accompanied by slight improvement in the purity of the color which might be attributed to improvement in crystallinity, grain sizes and creation of oxygen vacancies with Li-doping. The observed results have been discussed in comparison with similar reported works. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.