Feeder control system and method

1. A document forming apparatus comprising:

a substrate feeder for storing and dispensing substrates to a printing engine;

a controller for controlling the operation of the document forming apparatus, the controller including a media library database and a feeder capabilities and constraints database for storing information for the operation of the substrate feeder;

a user interface for controlling the operation of the document forming apparatus, the user interface including a stock library view, a stock settings dialog screen having an expert feeder controls section with a manual mode operator and an auto mode operator, and a control panel screen for manual mode operation, the control panel screen including means for adjusting a plurality of feeder parameters, indicators for manual and auto modes, and a save settings operator.

2. The document forming apparatus defined in claim 1 , wherein the substrate feeder includes a plurality of feeder assemblies, wherein each feeder assembly comprises a tray for holding a stack of substrates, a plurality of tray elevators, a plurality of fluffers, a motor, a plurality of heaters, a feed head vacuum, and a take away roll.

3. The document forming apparatus defined in claim 2 , wherein the feeder parameters include at least one of vacuum level, fluffer pressure, heater status, and stack height.

4. The document forming apparatus defined in claim 1 , wherein the media library database includes a plurality of memory registers for storing substrate attributes.

5. The document forming apparatus defined in claim 1 , wherein the feeder parameters include at least one of fuser temperature and decurler settings.