But in a more strict sense the term vital staining has a meaning contrasting with supravital staining.

In vivo staining ( Intra Vital Staining ) is the process of dyeing living tissues-in vivo means "in life" (compare with in vitro staining).

Aniline Yellow is used in microscopy for vital staining, in pyrotechnics for yellow colored smokes, in yellow pigments and inks including inks for inkjet printers.

Vital staining is a technique in biological staining where a mixture of unfixed live (also called "viable") and dead cells are distinguished by the property of the live cells to exclude certain dyes which will thus remain negatively stained in contrast to positive staining of the dead or dying/nonviable cells.