The work aims to develop a carbon dot ink capable of emitting yellow fluorescence under the excitation of light at specific wavelengths by preparing yellow fluorescent carbon dots with a hydrothermal synthesis method. Yellow carbon dots were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis with aminobenzenesulfonic acid and o-phenylenediamine as precursors and ethanol as a solvent, and their optical properties (e.g., absorption and fluorescence spectra) and structural compositions (e.g., particle size distribution and crystal structure) were characterized in detail. Subsequently, with prepared yellow carbon dots as the functional materials and polyvinyl alcohol as the linker, appropriate amount of additives were added to formulate the yellow carbon dot inks, and their optical properties and stability under different excitation light sources as well as their printing effects on different printing substrates were systematically evaluated. By optimizing the formulation and printing process of the carbon dot inks, the resulting yellow fluorescence not only possessed high brightness and stability, but also presented a consistent visual effect on paper-based materials, with the excitation wavelength red-shift from 300 nm to 400 nm, showing a significant wavelength dependence. This study demonstrates that by adding fluorescent carbon dots to inks, both the fluorescence intensity of the carbon dots can be maintained and the performance and effect of the inks in practical applications can be enhanced. Therefore, it has a broad application prospect in the fields of high-performance optical materials, functional inks, and printing anti-counterfeiting.