Timberline HDZ Colors: Full Chart and Michigan Picks (2026)

GAF Timberline HDZ comes in 23 colors for 2026: nine High Definition colors sold nationwide, ten regional High Definition colors, and the four Bold Definition colors GAF added in January 2026. In Southeast Michigan the five we are asked to quote most are Charcoal, Pewter Gray, Weathered Wood, Barkwood and Slate. The full chart is below, grouped by family, with the Atlas and Owens Corning colors we pair each one with. Written by Aaron Scott, licensed Michigan residential builder and owner of Roofing Army, which installs all three brands.

What are all the Timberline HDZ colors in 2026?

GAF now sells Timberline HDZ in two collections. High Definition is the classic Timberline look: nine colors available everywhere in the United States and ten more that GAF describes as regional, sold only in certain parts of the country. Bold Definition, announced January 8, 2026, adds four higher-contrast colors (Chestnut Valley, Cliffside, Midnight Mesa and Sierra Sand) that GAF says are available nationally. It replaces the older American Harvest and Harvest Blend palettes; GAF says limited inventory of Appalachian Sky, Nantucket Morning, Golden Harvest and Cedar Falls may still exist, but it points buyers to the new colors.

Every name below comes from GAF's current product page, color guide and the January 2026 announcement. Regional means GAF lists it that way, not that a Michigan supplier stocks it, so we confirm availability with our distributor before a color goes into a quote. Four lighter colors carry a Cool Roof Rating Council rating per GAF, a useful tell for which blends reflect the most sun.

Which colors are Timberline HDZ only, and which come in Timberline UHDZ?

Timberline UHDZ is GAF's premium laminate: thicker, with the Dual Shadow Line, an UltraMat fiberglass mat that earns a UL 2218 Class 4 impact rating, and a 30-year StainGuard Plus PRO algae warranty instead of the 25-year StainGuard Plus on HDZ. GAF's UHDZ page lists six colors: Barkwood, Charcoal, Pewter Gray, Shakewood, Slate and Weathered Wood, all of them nationwide High Definition colors on HDZ as well. The ten regional colors and the four Bold Definition colors are HDZ only as of this writing. Midnight Mesa or Cliffside means HDZ; a Class 4 rating means one of the six UHDZ colors.

Which Timberline HDZ colors do Southeast Michigan homeowners pick most?

GAF names Weathered Wood its best-selling color nationally, followed by Charcoal, Pewter Gray, Barkwood and Shakewood. Our list is close but not identical. When a homeowner asks us to price Timberline HDZ, these five come up most, and the reason is usually on the front of the house:

• Charcoal. The default on red and orange brick, the postwar ranches of Royal Oak, Berkley and Madison Heights. A near-black roof lets the brick stay the focal point, and no HOA committee has ever objected to charcoal.
• Pewter Gray. The pick for tan, buff and gray brick colonials in Troy and Rochester Hills, and for white or light gray siding where a black roof would look heavy. It reads lighter than Charcoal in sun and closer to it in shade.
• Weathered Wood. The safe neutral for beige and tan vinyl siding; when an HOA palette says earth tones, this is usually what it means.
• Barkwood. A warmer brown for homes with cedar accents, brown window frames or dark bronze gutters, where a gray roof would fight the trim.
• Slate. A cooler blue-gray that suits white farmhouse-style homes and gray fiber cement siding. It is the one most likely to surprise people on the roof, so see it full size first.

One honest caveat: most of the roofs in our published job gallery are Atlas Pinnacle Pristine, and we have not published a Timberline HDZ job yet. The five above are what homeowners ask us to quote, not an installed count. Our guide on how to choose a shingle color covers HOA and historic district approvals in more detail.

How do Timberline HDZ colors compare to Atlas Pinnacle and Owens Corning Duration?

Color names do not transfer across brands. Atlas Pewter is not GAF Pewter Gray, and Atlas Weathered Wood is not GAF Weathered Wood, even though they land in the same family. Atlas lists 19 Pinnacle Pristine colors, six flagged regional, and one of those, Burnt Hickory, is on several of our published roofs, so regional does not mean unavailable in Michigan. When a homeowner brings us a GAF chip and wants to see something like it on a real roof, these are the pairings we use, by eye:

• GAF Charcoal: closest to Atlas Black Shadow and Owens Corning Onyx Black.
• GAF Pewter Gray: closest to Atlas Pewter and Owens Corning Estate Gray.
• GAF Weathered Wood: closest to Atlas Weathered Wood and Owens Corning Driftwood.
• GAF Barkwood: closest to Atlas Burnt Hickory and Owens Corning Teak or Brownwood.
• GAF Slate: closest to Atlas Hearthstone and Owens Corning Colonial Slate.

The Atlas links go to drone photos of real Southeast Michigan roofs in that color, with the city and price of each. Our shingle colors page has every color we have installed, and the brands page explains when we reach for each line. For the warranty and nailing differences behind the colors, read Atlas Pinnacle vs GAF Timberline HDZ vs CertainTeed Landmark and Owens Corning Duration vs GAF Timberline HDZ.

How should you judge a Timberline HDZ sample board?

GAF's color guide warns that screens misrepresent shingle colors and tells you to ask for samples. Atlas prints the same warning in capital letters: final color selections should be made using full size shingles. We go further, because a single shingle still lies:

• Look at a full bundle on a roof, not a chip in your hand. Architectural shingles blend three or four granule colors plus a shadow band, and the blend only reads correctly across several courses.
• See it in sun and in shade. Dark grays go nearly black in shade and show their brown or blue undertone in afternoon sun. Check the north and south slopes of a real roof, or at least the sample at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• Hold it against your brick, from the street. Stand at the curb; that is where everyone will see it.
• Check it wet. A wet shingle is a shade or two darker, and Michigan roofs are wet a lot.
• Decide the drip edge and gutter color at the same time. The metal at the eave sits right against the shingle on every elevation.

Do dark Timberline HDZ colors make a Michigan attic hotter?

A little, and less than people expect. The best measured data comes from a Florida Solar Energy Center study (Parker, Sonne, Sherwin and Moyer, 2000) of seven otherwise identical homes in Fort Myers with different roofs. The attic under standard dark shingles peaked about 40 degrees F above outdoor air at the hottest hour, while attics under highly reflective white tile and metal stayed no hotter than outdoors. The telling number is the white shingle house: about 4 percent less cooling energy over a year than the dark shingle house, roughly 300 kWh. That is Florida. In Michigan, where heating dominates, the EPA notes that cool roofs can raise winter energy use and that long-lasting snow cover shrinks the difference. Within the grays and browns in the HDZ chart, the difference between colors is small.

What we see on tear-offs is that ventilation decides whether a roof cooks, not color. Brittle, curled shingles over painted-shut soffits show up in Weathered Wood as often as in Charcoal. Balanced intake and exhaust keeps the deck closer to outdoor temperature in July and dry in January, which is why we do a ventilation analysis on every estimate; our attic ventilation page and our guide to intake, exhaust and ridge vents explain what we look for. GAF's Cool Roof Rating Council rated HDZ colors are Birchwood, Golden Amber, Fox Hollow Gray and Copper Canyon; all four are regional.

Does every Timberline HDZ color resist algae?

Yes. Since January 2022 GAF has made its Time-Release Algae-Fighting Technology standard on Timberline HDZ and on its ridge cap and starter strip shingles: engineered capsules that release copper slowly. That backs the 25-year StainGuard Plus Algae Protection Limited Warranty against blue-green algae discoloration, which GAF says applies only to shingles sold in packages carrying the StainGuard Plus logo. Timberline UHDZ carries 30 years under the StainGuard Plus PRO name with, per GAF, 10 percent more of the technology. Color does not change the coverage, but it changes how streaks look: on the roofs we inspect, black streaking shows first on lighter grays and tans and on north slopes under trees, and hides longest in Charcoal. Atlas Pinnacle Pristine with Scotchgard Protector carries a lifetime algae term, the main reason it is our default recommendation.

Get Timberline HDZ priced next to Atlas and Owens Corning

Every Roofing Army estimate comes with five written quotes at different price points, and if you want HDZ we put it in one of them next to Atlas Pinnacle Pristine or Owens Corning Duration so color and price sit side by side in writing. The roof underneath is identical whichever shingle you choose: full tear-off, 6 feet of ice and water shield at the eaves, cap-nailed synthetic underlayment, a ventilation plan, an in-house crew with a project manager on site, no deposit, and a 50-year workmanship warranty (details on our warranty page). The cover photo is a real roof: 2251 Columbia Road in Berkley, 1,567 square feet in Atlas Black Shadow, published at $13,968.47. Start on our roof replacement page and we will bring full-size samples to the free inspection.

Sources: GAF Timberline HDZ and UHDZ product pages, shingle color guide, Bold Definition press release and blog posts (January and February 2026) and the January 18, 2022 algae technology press release; Atlas Pinnacle Pristine product page; Owens Corning Duration pages; Florida Solar Energy Center report FSEC-CR-1220-00 (2000); U.S. EPA, Using Cool Roofs to Reduce Heat Islands; Roofing Army job gallery. Lineups and warranty terms change; confirm current documents before you buy.