diff --git a/src/style-spec/expression/types/formatted.js b/src/style-spec/expression/types/formatted.js
index 6cd74986f9c..0bc5000b4cc 100644
--- a/src/style-spec/expression/types/formatted.js
+++ b/src/style-spec/expression/types/formatted.js
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ export default class Formatted {
         return this.sections.map(section => section.text).join('');
     }
 
-    serialize() {
+    serialize(): Array<mixed> {
         const serialized = ["format"];
         for (const section of this.sections) {
             serialized.push(section.text);
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ export default class Formatted {
                 options["font-scale"] = section.scale;
             }
             if (section.textColor) {
-                options["text-color"] = ["literal", section.textColor];
+                options["text-color"] = ["rgba"].concat(section.textColor.toArray());
             }
             serialized.push(options);
         }
diff --git a/test/integration/expression-tests/format/basic/test.json b/test/integration/expression-tests/format/basic/test.json
index 2e9e51d62f5..d4a9a32010b 100644
--- a/test/integration/expression-tests/format/basic/test.json
+++ b/test/integration/expression-tests/format/basic/test.json
@@ -85,15 +85,7 @@
       },
       "d",
       {
-        "text-color": [
-          "literal",
-          {
-            "a": 1,
-            "b": 0,
-            "g": 1,
-            "r": 0
-          }
-        ]
+        "text-color": ["rgba", 0, 255, 0, 1]
       }
     ]
   }