Bright Eyes: High-Contrast Images for Your Baby's Brain

Welcome to Bright Eyes – a free app and website that provides hundreds of high-quality, high-contrast images to help stimulate your baby's brain.

Scientific studies have shown that exposure to high-contrast images can can help improve your baby's visual acuity and cognitive development, which is why we've made it our mission to make these images accessible to all parents for free.

We offer a wide variety of images, from animals to shapes to objects, all designed to capture your baby's attention and help them learn. And best of all, our app and the printouts are absolutely free and contain no ads.

Download Bright Eyes today and give your baby the gift of early learning!

Download a printable version

Instead of charging up to $15 for high-contrast images, we made hundreds of our handcrafted high-contrast images completely free. It was really important to us that every family could access them regardless of their financial situation. As parents ourselves we know how quickly our little ones can become expensive!

Choose whether you'd like your images on a dark or light background, print them, cut them into separate cards, and entertain your little one.

The science behind the newborn visual stimulation

Why are high-contrast images important?

Newborn's eyes

At birth, your baby's retina is not fully developed. During the first three months it is 50 times less sensitive to contrast than an adult's. Unlike an adult's retina, however, it cannot distinguish the subtle colors and shades. Instead, it is only capable of detecting significant contrasts between black and white, or light and dark.

A blurry world

Until around three months of age, your baby cannot focus on objects that are more than 8-12 inches away from their faces. Any farther than that, and they see mostly blurry shapes. Showing high-contrast images to your baby who is used to seeing blur stimulates their visual system.

Brain development

At birth, the nerve cells in baby brains are disorganized and not well-connected. As your baby grows, their brain receives input from the visual system, which causes nerve cells to multiply and form connections with other nerve cells. Stronger visual stimulation by high-contrast images helps with this process.

Tips for using high-contrast images

Here's how to get the most out of the high-contrast images in the Bright Eyes app or the printouts:

  • Start by showing simple shapes 10-12 inches away from your baby's face. That's about the distance between your hand and your elbow.
  • Keep the images still while your baby is interested, up to 1-2 minutes per image.
  • When your baby loses interest, change to a new image.
  • Start with simple shapes, and move to animals or more complex patterns over time.

When your little one gets accustomed to the high-contrast images, move them slowly back-and-forth in front of their face to get their eyes moving too. This helps them practice tracking a moving object with their eyes, which is very important for future skills like reading, writing, and hand-eye coordination.

Add some fun to the diaper changes

Put the phone or printouts with the high-contrast pics next to the changing table, right where baby can see them. You'll both have something to look at and chat about – "Hey there, you checking out the monkey? That tail is pretty cool, right?"

Bring fun on-the-go

Want to make car rides more fun and stimulating for your little one? Attach the phone or the printed high-contrast images to the backseat of the car where your baby can easily see them. This will not only entertain them during the ride but also help them improve their visual skills.

Brighten the tummy time

Place the phone or the printouts on the floor or on a nearby surface and encourage your baby to look at the high-contrast images while they lift their head and work on their neck strength. You can also hold the images above them to encourage them to reach and grab. Tummy time can be challenging for babies, so providing visual stimulation can help keep them engaged.

Make playtime more exciting

When playing with your baby, show them some high-contrast images to make it more entertaining. Make it fun by talking about the images like "Oh, look at the cute bunny!". Put the images close to your baby, like on their play mat or in their hands. This will help your baby learn to focus, and also help them practice their hand-eye coordination and motor skills.