1. A method of collecting diagnostic data for a printer, the method comprising: generating at least one of cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets, the cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets identifying documents having substantive sheets being printed by the printer; programming the printer to (i) automatically alter at least some cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets in response to issuance by the printer of certain pre-determined occurrences, including the issuing by the printer of an alarm or alert, the altering at least some of the cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets including adding a message on at least some of the cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets corresponding to the issued alarm or alert and (ii) alter certain process parameters which in turn removes feedback loop generated compensation, wherein removal of the feedback loop generated compensation results in a non-compensated cover sheet which is printed, and the non-compensated cover sheet is compared with a compensated cover sheet printed with the feedback loop compensation being active, to predict when a component of the printer will begin affecting image quality, routinely collecting the generated cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets; and preserving at least some of the collected cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets as a historical record of the output of the printer over a time period, wherein the historical record of the cover sheets and/or electronic versions of the cover sheets includes data which is used to diagnose image quality issues and potential image quality issues related to the documents processed by the printer.