Can someone tell me what the K channel is?

[Tossers]

Sorry if my question sounds dumb, but I am new.

I was reading someones reply to a post and that said to: Make a new colour with the C M Y channels empty and the K channel 100%.

Could someone please post step by step instructions on how to do this? What is a K channel? Is it the black layer?

 

[rickwells]

CMYK stands for C = cyan, m = magenta, y = yellow and k = black.
These are the colours used in colour printing and the values in the channels represent the percentage of each printing ink that is present in the file. ( not exactly technical jargon, but I hope you know what I mean ). The amount of each colour is controlled by varying size halftone dots.
If you have a RGB file - 3 channels plus a composite channel - the channels show the amount of red, green and blue pixels that make up the colours on your monitor. Go to Image>mode>cmyk. This gives you 4 channels plus the composite one. To get 100% in the black ( k ) channel, use your colour palette in cmyk mode. Move the sliders so that c,m,y are at zero and k is on 100%. Then fill whatever area you require on your canvas with that mix. Now, if you click on each channel seperately you will see that the cmy channels are white ( empty ) and the k channel is 100% black ( solid ). You can have other channels for 'spot' colours as well as 'alpha' channels.
Go to Google - There are loads of websites out there able to explain this better than me !!

 

[mscallisto]

Actually most google searches won't explain the channel basics any better than rickwells just did.

 

[rickwells]

Thanks mscallisto - you're too kind !!