The not-for-profit organisation said one particular threat for the print industry next year could be the widely expected cuts in public spending.

FPB spokesman Phil McCabe said: "A lot of publishers rely on public bodies, such as local authorities and health trusts for work, but they may well cut back in newsletters and in-house magazines as soon as their budgets start to shrink. It tends to be one of the first areas to feel the axe."

Over 2010, he said there may be more pain to come in an economic climate characterised by severe credit restrictions.

However, he added that there will be opportunities for confident and proactive entrepreneurs.

While the FPB has found that confidence is creeping back into the SME sector in some instances, a return to better and more affordable bank lending will be required if they are to prosper as the UK heads out of recession, it claimed.

McCabe said: "Prospects for 2010 depend on businesses being able to access cashflow to make the most of economic recovery, and the latest official data shows that individual banks are not yet meeting their lending targets."

Without more affordable lending to accompany government support schemes, a greater variety of funding options and a tax strategy conducive to growth, he predicted that 2010 would be another tough year.

Elsewhere, the FPB has called on the Office of Fair Trading to focus specifically on phoenix companies and directors who abuse the process, while carrying out an investigative review of the corporate insolvency market.

McCabe said that countless printers had been left out-of-pocket because of a business dropping out of the market.

"The banks and the government take their cut, but small businesses that have supplied that company are often never paid," he said.

"SMEs in the printing industry can also be hit when a competitor uses the phoenix process to wipe the slate clean of debts and carry on trading, giving them a massively unfair advantage."

The review should be completed by the end of 2010 and McCabe said he hopes it will help isolate and correct the problem of phoenix practices.