The formation of red-emissive optical centers in carbon dots based on citric acid and formamide was investigated by varying the synthesis parameters with focus on finding optimal─necessary and sufficient─amount of precursors to decrease byproduct amount and to increase the chemical yield of red-emissive carbon dots. The emission is observed at 640 nm excited at 590 nm and quantum yield reaches up 19%. A high chemical yield of carbon dots of 26% was achieved at an optimal molar ratio of citric acid to formamide of 1:4.