A3 colour laser printer to work with MacOSX snow leopard?

Hello again,

The best solution would be if OKI could suggest a suitable driver for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (and possibly even Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger). However, they may be reluctant to guarantee anything. In that case, you would have to carry out experiments; not easy without access to the printer...

If the local dealer had a C834 demo printer available for testing, there would be several things to try, such as generic PostScript or PCL drivers from the operating system, or drivers for other (similar/older) OKI printers.

If absolutely necessary, a temporary workaround would be to print/save to PDF on the 10.4 and 10.6 Macs, and then transfer the PDF files to a 10.10 or newer Mac via the network or a USB flash/pen drive.

If you have an old PC that is not in use, you could (remove the existing operating system there and) download and install an appropriate version of the free Ubuntu. Since Linux is using CUPS for printing, it would be easy to transform the now Ubuntu PC into a print server (only by changing a few settings). The printer is connected to the PC by USB. Ubuntu handles Bonjour, allowing a Mac to automatically recognise a shared printer. The interesting part is that the drivers are on the Ubuntu side. I noticed that there is a driver file for CUPS under Linux on the OKI support page (but I do not know any details about how this file is supposed to be used with the C834). The shared printer is thus made available on the network, which, if everything is OK, should allow printing from the 10.4 and 10.6 Macs. Merely an idea for an experiment. USB (instead of the normal direct network) connection to this very printer may or may not work well. You may want to try the relatively simple general procedure with an existing printer first.

Thank you for your report, michaelfromberrigan. In principle, the print server could be any computer (with USB and Ethernet/Wi-Fi), CUPS, and an operating system that can accept drivers for the printer in question. For example, a PC with Ubuntu and the Linux printer driver mentioned earlier. Perhaps a Raspberry Pi with an appropriate operating system and said Linux printer driver. Even a Mac running Ubuntu could possibly work. One can per se use a Mac as a print server for a shared USB printer (however, for the C834 model that would mean a Mac running OS X 10.10 Yosemite or higher, because of the Mac printer drivers).

Connecting the printer model, which has built-in Ethernet and Wi-Fi network capabilities, as a shared USB printer to an external print server may sound strange. The reason for this is merely to "circumvent" the system requirements (that is, to use the available printer drivers).

Of course, we cannot rule out that earlier Mac OS versions may in fact work, even if not supported by the printer manufacturer, but that would require tests.

You mentioned (OS X 10.9) Mavericks. This operating system supports the driverless AirPrint technology. Oki Data C834dnw is one of the models in the list in About AirPrint - Apple Support. So, from an OS X 10.9 computer, it should be possible to print via AirPrint, without drivers, providing that the printer and computer are connected (wired or wirelessly) to the same network (Wi-Fi router). AirPrint printing may or may not have limitations compared to printing using drivers/software from the printer manufacturer.

OK, so here are the printers:

https://www.support.xerox.com/en-au/product/phaser-3125

https://support-fb.fujifilm.com/setupDriverForm.do?ctry_code=AU&lang_code=en&d_lang=en&pid=DPC1110

https://support-fb.fujifilm.com/setupDriverForm.do?ctry_code=AU&lang_code=en&d_lang=en&pid=DPC305D

https://support.hp.com/au-en/product/hp-designjet-t520-printer-series/5263079

(About AirPrint - Apple Support indicates that the HP DesignJet T520 24in supports AirPrint as well).

If a printer does not have (or for some reason cannot use) Ethernet/Wi-Fi, one can connect it by USB to a Mac, and then share the printer on the network.

Share your printer on Mac - Apple Support

You may want to try this with your USB-connected printers.

Add a printer on Mac - Apple Support

Hello,

The OKI support page does not mention a PS printer driver for anything earlier than OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

https://www.oki.com/eu/printing/support/drivers-and-utilities/colour/47074214/?os=ab23&lang=ac2

There are some utilities for even older systems, though.

This does not necessarily mean that you cannot use the printer with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Since the model in question is capable of handling several printer languages, there is probably at least a chance that some kind of solution can be found (for example, using generic PostScript or PCL drivers). However, you should really discuss this with OKI. Good luck!

https://www.oki.com/eu/printing/images/OKI_C800_SpecSheet_A4_Portrait_EN_master_lores_tcm70-239604.pdf

Normally, you connect computers and printers (with a network interface) to the LAN ports of a Wi-Fi router. This means that you could access the network wirelessly as well. Details depend upon the operating systems, printer driver availability, etc. Could you be a bit more specific regarding the network, computers, OS versions, and printer models involved? Do you want to share files too, not only print?

Something to consider, with any printer you can save your print job to PDF, and then take the PDF over to another Mac you copy the PDF to via flash drive or sharing an external hard drive, or over the LAN. Then you can print the PDF from the Mac that does have the driver in question. Mind you PDFs do need to be formatted properly for printing, but once you get a PDF that fits your requirements, it should print seamlessly on any Mac that has the right drivers.