The production of pigments by mutagenic Monascus HNLI was optimized with nitrogen culture mediums and the effects of various organic and inorganic nitrogen culture mediums were studied. Results indicated that differences among the production of azaphilone pigments, under various conditions, were significant. The optimal organic nitrogen sources and inorganic nitrogen sources for the production of azaphilone pigment by Monascus HNLI were 5 % peptone and 5 % NaNO3. Their azaphilone pigment values reached to 80.84 /mL and 57.37 /mL. Meanwhile, biomasses reached 31.9 g/L and 14.7 g/L, respectively. NH4Cl, an inorganic nitrogen source, was more suitable to the production of red pigment than of orange pigment. However, high concentration of monosodium glutamate was unsuitable to the production of azaphilone pigment. In addition, the results also revealed that color value produced by Monascus HNLI was not in direct proportion with color hue. The difference of color values under conditions of liquid fermentation with different nitrogen sources was significant, while the difference of color hues was not significant.