Visible emission of Li-doped ZnO (LZO) thin films prepared by a sol-gel method has been tuned in a wide range from blue-green to yellow. Blue-green, yellow, and warm white emissions are observed as 5.0 at.% LZO thin films are annealed in N-2, air, and He, respectively. A strong dependence of the defect emission of LZO on annealing atmosphere suggests that the visible emissions of LZO are related to intrinsic defects rather than lithium impurities.