We presented the time-dependent density functional theory calculated ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra for derivatives of phenylhydrazones, semicarbazones and pyrrole hydrazones in ethanol. We employed the B3LYP, PBE0, CAM-B3LYP, LC-omega PBE, LC-PBE and omega 1B97X-D functionals. We gauged the performance of the six hybrid functionals of choice in determination of the K-band lambda(max) values of the UV-vis spectra. The PCM-TD-PBE0/6-311 + G(2d, p)//PCM-PBE0/6-311G(d,p) approach provided the smallest error with an average absolute deviation limited to 14 nm. We also investigated the impacts of including explicit solvent molecules and considering vibrational envelope with the Franck-Condon Herzberg-Teller method. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.