The development of novel manufacturing methods for flexible, light weight and cost-efficient electronics has attracted great interest in recent years. The inkjet printing technology is an attractive fabrication process due to its additive, high precision and up-scalable deposition process. One of the key components of printed electronic devices is the conductive track. A major requirement is a desired and device dependent electrical performance induced by an appropriate post treatment process. Here, the novel method of using intense pulsed light (IPL) to convert printed liquid films into solid and functionalized metallic layers has great potential when it comes to fabrication of electronics on thin, flexible and even stretchable polymeric foils. Within this research, the IPL sintering and its dependence on the spectral absorption and reflection of various materials is investigated. A nanoparticle silver ink is inkjet printed on a transparent PET foil. Afterwards, the printed samples are placed at a defined distance from the background inside the photonic sintering equipment and flashed on one hand with various flashing parameters and on the other with changing background materials and colors. Changing the background color influences the reflection and absorption properties of the flashlight; the electrical performance of the IPL processed conductive layers can be drastically changed when such a phenomenon occurs. Highly conductive silver tracks or electrodes can be manufactured on thin and flexible polymeric substrates without damage. © 2016 Society for Imaging Science and Technology.