# Oki C3400



## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

Just thought I'd share this. I bought an Oki C3400 and am using for the first time at a show this weekend. I'm not impressed. It has melted the DuracottonHT paper twice and the color reproduction is nothing like my C8800. Reducing the paper weight setting fixes the melting issue, but then the toner does not stick to the paper properly. I'll be taking this printer back and taking advantage of staples 30 day exchange policy. I think I'll go with the C5800 instead. It's only $200 more. If I understand correctly, The C5800 is basically a smaller version of the C8800, so it should produce similar results.

Correction...It's the C5500 I'll be upgrading to. I'm unclear as to whether the 3400 and 5500 use the same print technology and toner. Same as the C8800 that is.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

the oki 3400 and 5500 are different.. the 5500 and 5800 are basically the same except the 5800 will do autoduplexing if you want to print brochures etc.

Maybe Big Ed will chine in he has a 3400 and it is work just fine for him.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

My biggest complaint is the color reproduction. I have to set the saturation in Photoshop to -60 or flesh tones come out red, whites come out blue, etc. Basically colors are just way over saturated. This happens on plain paper as well, so it's definitely the printer. My C8800 prints photo quality without changing anything in Photoshop. It prints what I see on the screen.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

Ross...it does seem to be a defective printer. You will be very happy with the 5500. I use the 5800 and love it..a real work horse


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

Well, I took the 3400 back and got a 5500 and I'm having the same color saturation problem. Basically, I have to set the saturation in Photoshop to -40 to make reds look right, but then blues look a little washed out. Color reproduction is just horrendous. 

Are you printing from Photoshop on a PC? What are your print settings. I've tried "Let printer determine colors" and "Let Photoshop determine colors" with a few different color profiles. Nothing makes a difference.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

I do all my printing with Corel Draw... I will try from Photoshop and let you know


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

I'd bet money that the 5500 and 5800 use a different print technology and/or toner. I'll bet the 5800 and 8800 use the same technology. My 8800 prints picture perfect white the 5500 prints the same file on the same computer way, WAY oversaturated. I can get marginally acceptable results by reducing saturation. Prints with vivid highly contrasting colors are a real problem on the 5500/3400.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

I think I will call Oki solutions...ask them about the difference in ink/technology of the 5500/5800. will post the results


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

charles95405 said:


> I think I will call Oki solutions...ask them about the difference in ink/technology of the 5500/5800. will post the results


I talked to them today, but I think I knew more than they did. I think the C5500 has a driver issue. I need to lighten the image by +30 to get good color reproduction. This can be done in the driver, which means the image does not need to be lightened in PS, which would make it un-printable on any other printer. So....I set up two presets in the driver, one for landscape and one for portrait. In these presets I set the brightness manually to +30.

Problem is that when you go to print a image and select that preset, the brightness setting of +30 is not applied. That setting is evidently not being saved in the preset so when you print, the default is used regardless of the brightness setting. If you select "default", then go through and set all of the driver setting again manually, it works.

Since I don't want to go through all of the driver setting every time I print, when I create an image, I save one for the C5500 with a +30 brightness setting and one for the Oki C8800/Epson 1400, both of which print perfectly with no special color adjustments.


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

I just got a C3400n today, I have the same problem, skin tones come out red, like a bad sun burn. I found upping the brightness to 20 to 30 helps, 20 looks best. I've been messing with the saturation values too, but 0 seems to be fine. I also set the color matching to Vivid.

Does anyone have some good tested settings for this printer?

Thanx!


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

I couldn't get a decent photo print out of the 3400 or the 5500. If you lighten and desaturate to get the bright colors to print correctly, the light colors wash out. For instance, you have a burgundy car against a pale light blue sky. If you adjust for the car, the sly will be totally washed out.

I took them both back. I just use my C8800 for everything now.


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

Ah crap, with all the talk of Duracotton and the Oki printers I thought it was a good purchase. I needed a new printer to replace my old ink jet as well as attempting to do some transfers.

Thanx!


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

It was fine for spot colors, but not for photos.


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

rrc62 said:


> It was fine for spot colors, but not for photos.


Thanx, just need my Duracotton HT now. When I get that I'll test the printer with it, if I don't like it send the printer back. I'm getting a used paint dried up T Jet 2 (should be here tomorrow) so I have little cash to spend on a higher grade laser printer.

Has anyone else played with the color correction software that comes with the Okidata c3400n?

Oh, and what is the default administrator username and password for the web interface for this printer?


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## Lnfortun (Feb 18, 2006)

Have you tried using Oki's Color Correct Utility and create your own color profile?

Just a tought.


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

I was hoping someone else did, I searched google forever, but nothing. I also searched for .icm files for the windows driver. I noticed that Oki released a new driver for the printer for Vista, I have Vista on a laptop, I'll try something from it in the next while, maybe the problem is fixed with it, my XP driver is from 2006. I'm sure it's just a fine tuning of a one or two of the toner levels. When I printed out the swatch with the swatch utility, the first page was perfect but it just gets worse and worse the more it went down the 3 pages.

ps: I used 10% of all colors while testing, 0% of black, it's not cheap getting the right colors!


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

I don't think the 3400 and 5500 come with any such software. Unlike the c8800, there is no provision in the driver to specify a particular ICC profile. I read through the documentation and even called Oki trying to find a way to correct the color and all they told me was that it is an office printer and not designed for printing photos.


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## Lnfortun (Feb 18, 2006)

I guess I made a mistake saying about creating profile. What I meant is creating a modified color type that is used by the driver e.g. RBGs, Digital Camera, Vivid etc. One can modify an existing type and change the values of CMYK or RGB hue, gama and saturation within the Oki color correct utility then save it under a different name. To use it select your custom color type from advanced color of the color tab under user defined drop down list in the driver.

If your printer did not come with Oki color correct utility check oki's webiste to see if it is available for download.


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

I have the color correction utility that came with it. Just running out of toner not knowing what I'm doing. The swatch dumps RBG colors and I can't relate them to the CYMK values and have no clue what the other stuff is doing. I found a site that has some good info for monitor, printer calibration but I have no time right now. Too busy starting a T shirt business! My freaking T Jet didn't show today, will be here tomorrow for sure. That will kill a day replacing the guts that the ink dried in and then learning it.

Thanx!


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

I upped the brightness of the print driver in the windows setting in the control panel to +16 and the saturation to +6 and everything prints great. It is always default now and photos come out excellent.

Now I got my Duracotton I'm having problems with the toner sticking to the paper, it ends up flaking off a inche around the outsides. I can take my finger and wipe the toner of the transfer paper!

The first paper worked great, since the next 3 papers are doing this. It leaves a mess in the printer that comes out on the next page.

Sigh


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

Okay, $10.00 of paper later (lots to test heat press settings) I discovered it was the black that was causing the problems with toner flaking, melting, lack of bonding... setting "Black Finish" in the "Colors" properties menu to True Black (k) stops the problem. I tried all three sets and that was it.


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## Lnfortun (Feb 18, 2006)

SICK said:


> Okay, $10.00 of paper later (lots to test heat press settings) I discovered it was the black that was causing the problems with toner flaking, melting, lack of bonding... setting "Black Finish" in the "Colors" properties menu to True Black (k) stops the problem. I tried all three sets and that was it.


I had the same problem with other transfer product. Printing 10 blank bond papers before printing on the transfer paper solved it. This method keeps the fuser at temp. What media weight did you use? Try using ultra heavy or card stock. Print with higher weight or media thickness raises the temp of the fuser to compensate for the media type or weight.

Hope this helps.


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## SICK (Nov 16, 2006)

I upped the weight to heavy and it jamed 2 pages, that was long before. So far I can't stand this paper. I got a used T Jet a few days ago, so I guess I'm spoiled now. I'll think this Oki printer should be returned.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

I had a lot of jams with the 3400 as well. It's not the paper. It's the printer. My C8800 has never jammed and has never printed a bad transfer.


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## alejovel (Mar 20, 2008)

The Okidata C3400 and the C5500 are very different printers. They DO NOT use the same type of toner cartridges. The cartridges for the C5500 are more expensive. They looke the same but I guess they use a different chip

Alex Oaks

www.imagetoner.com


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

I think it uses the same print engine. The photo prints were not any better with the 5500 than with the 3400. The 8800 produces much better quality photo prints than either of them.


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