Carbon dots (CDots) exploit unique properties of small carbon nanoparticles, which represent the often underappreciated zero-dimensional carbon allotrope. The carbon nanoparticles in CDots could be modified by a selected organic chromophore of desired strong red/near-IR absorption in the dot synthesis to obtain a specific type of hybrid CDots. The reported results show that these hybrid CDots derived from the modification of core carbon nanoparticles by selected dyes or other chromophoric species represent a highly versatile and effective platform for CDots of desired optical properties and photoinduced redox characteristics in a by-design fashion.