Abstract. A family of¯uorescent styryl dyes was synthesized to apply them as probes that monitor the ion-translocating activity of the Na,K-ATPase and the SR Ca-ATPase, similar to the widely used dye RH421. All dyes had the same chromophore but they di ered in the length of the spacer between chromophore and polar head, an isothiocyanate group, and in the lengths of the two identical acyl chains, which form the tail of the dye molecules. A number of substrate-dependent partial reactions of both P-type ATPases a ected the¯uorescence intensity, and the magnitude of the¯uorescence changes was used to characterize the usefulness of the dyes for further application. The experimental results indicate that electrochromy is the major mechanism of these dyes. While in the case of the Na,K-ATPase a single dye, 5QITC, showed larger¯uorescence changes than all others, in the case of the SR Ca-ATPase all dyes tested were almost equal in their¯uorescence responses. This prominent di erence is interpreted as a hint that the position of the ion binding sites in both ion pumps may di er signi®cantly despite their otherwise closely related structural features. Quench experiments with spin-labeled lipids in various positions of their fatty acids were used to gain information on the depth of the chromophore of the di erent dyes within the membrane dielectric, however, the spatial resolution was so poor that only qualitative information on the position of the chromophore in the lipid phase could be obtained.