# Phantom [Pantone] chips



## Irene Plaza

Hi everyone, 
I'm subtitling a video for TED and I've encountered this term and I can't find its equivalent. The sentence in which it's used is this one:

So I flew down to San Diego
and went to a paint store
and went over hundreds of phantom chips

I suppose that it is some type of painting material but I don't know what it is. Thank you for your help.


----------



## Raposu

I've never heard the phrase Phantom chips."  The little cards with samples of paint colors and names on them are usually called sample chips, sample cards, paint cards, or samples.  You can take them home to see how the colors look where you intend to use it,


----------



## Irene Plaza

Yes, I've heard of that before but never of this concept of phantom chips. Thanks for answering.


----------



## ChemaSaltasebes

I really think it must say _*pantone*_ and not _*phantom*_, referring to _muestras de color (Pantone)_.

*Pantone chips *


----------



## Raposu

Yes, Pantone makes sense, but I don't think you will find Pantone product samples in most paint stores.


----------



## ChemaSaltasebes

Raposu said:


> Yes, Pantone makes sense, but I don't think you will find Pantone product samples in most paint stores.


Well... it is San Diego!! 
Anyhow, I believe Pantone chips might be used here not literally but as a general way to refer to _muestras de color_ -this would not be the first example of a brand's name that is used popularly as a generic name for a product.


----------



## Irene Plaza

Ok, that makes sense. It must be a typo from the source text then. Thank you for helping me.


----------



## phantom2007

"-this would not be the first example of a brand's name that is used popularly as a generic name for a product."

Well, Pantone is more than a brand name. It is now the main standard for colours, at least in the Industry. 

But it's true it is seldom used in the domestic market.

For this reason I find it rather improbable that the author is referring to Pantone "chips". And also, Pantone is mostly defined by numbers, not by samples.

Could you provide more lines of the song/poem, to see how it continues?


----------



## Irene Plaza

This is further context for the term, it's talking about painting the wall between the US and Mexico. 

"And then one morning, I realized, why don't I use my most powerful weapon, which is paint? I knew that I had to sing in the same tone as the sky if I wanted to bring the sky back down, between the US and Mexico. So I flew down to San Diego and went to a paint store and went over hundreds of phantom chips. The next morning, at the border, I went there with my mother at 7 am, and I began to erase it."


----------



## ChemaSaltasebes

Yeap, I think it makes full sense; it is a guy who paints and wants to paint the US-Mexico wall in exactly the same sky-blue tone that would allow for the illusion that the painted wall is not a wall but part of the blue sky. 
I would say that Pantone chips makes full sense for a painter to say in reference to color chips (muestras de color).


----------



## phantom2007

Yes, I now agree with Chema's interpretation. Though I had thought of a slightly different one, to accommodate "phantom chips".

Mine was that this guy chose a sort of "phantom paint" with the magic property of erasing (making invisible) the hideous wall. Too much fantastic...and wrong.

There is still another detail: "I had to sing in the same tone as the sky"... could be metaphoric, but makes little sense. There could be another typo or confused words while listening to the video? Instead of "sing in", could it be "sink in" or "think in the same tone"
Or what else?


----------



## Quirce

Existen unos libros (muy caros) con muestras de color Pantone que se denominan pantoneras. Cada una de las fichas de una pantonera (o cada ficha individual no integrada en una pantonera) es un "Pantone chip", que es el término que usan los profesionales que conozco. A efectos de subtítulos, se podría usar "fichas Pantone", supongo.


----------



## jsvillar

Yo creo que es 'carta pantone', aunque en realidad son muchas fichas unidas por un taladro de manera que se abren en abanico, cada una con varios colores. ¿Es eso el pantone chip?


----------



## Quirce

Tal como yo lo veo, una carta Pantone es una página de la pantonera cuando presenta una gama de colores (por ejemplo, cincuenta tonalidades de amarillo-ocre), mientras el chip es una ficha individual, con un solo color.


----------



## ChemaSaltasebes

Sí; el chip se refiere a cada muestra de color individual (a cada "ficha", "chapa" o "recorte"). En este caso, no obstante, traduciría como _muestras de color_ (_*cientos de muestras de color/colores*_). Lo de Pantone, en el contexto dado -y siendo para subtitulado- puede perfectamente obviarse.
Saludos!


----------

