Trade for most remained static this spring, but a third saw improvement, the survey reported, and the number experiencing improvement was above expectations, which "more than offset" the number that said trade dipped.

A quarter expected trade to pick up through the summer months, while almost three fifths anticipated trading conditions to stay the same.

Corporate affairs director Andrew Brown said: "No-one wants to tempt fate and we all know that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but the results are encouraging.

"It is our best reading for the spring period for eight years. Unfortunately, the spectre of more paper and ink cost increases continues to cast a shadow across our industry."

Big worries highlighted in the report included unhappiness at soaring paper price rises and unease at continuing problems from phoenix and pre-pack companies.  

"Over-capacity is still an issue but utilisation has improved, with more printers working closer to capacity than three months earlier," Brown added.

"Order levels exceeded expectations, with no less than two-fifths of UK printers benefiting from a pick-up in domestic order levels during spring.

"The number reporting an increase was much better than forecast, with only 19% having predicted improvement. That said, the 21% that saw a dip in order levels was close to double that forecast."