For the protonated forms of both H2[TA3PP] and H2[TA3PyP], TD-CAMY-B3LYP/STO-TZ2P calculations predict two NIR Q bands (neglecting vibronic coupling). For both molecules, the lowestenergy feature, i.e., the hyperporphyrin band, corresponds to an essentially HOMO-to-LUMO transition, while the second-lowest-energy feature corresponds to a HOMO-to-LUMO+1 transition. For triprotonated H2[TA3PyP], the two Q bands are strongly split, reflecting the large LUMO/LUMO+1 gap alluded to above, while for diprotonated H2[TA3PP], they are near-coincident. Experimentally, only a single, very broad Q band is observed for triprotonated H2[TA3PyP], with an absorption maximum at 781 nm and an FWHM » 100 nm. The broad band presumably subsumes both Q fundamentals and their vibronic progressions; the large FWHM presumably also reflects a significant degree of conformational heterogeneity involving the meso-aryl groups. For TAPP diacid, in contrast, the two Q bands are exactly degenerate, reflecting the higher (D2d) symmetry of the system. The most intense calculated Soret transition of triprotonated H2[TA3PyP] corresponds to one with nearly 80% HOMO-1to-LUMO character, so a greatly stabilized LUMO also explains the observed redshift of the Soret band.