I would like to distinguish adjacent cells from each other using patterns or
something other than color. Color works well for the display on the web page,
but when the document is printed on black and white printers the color is
lost.

one way is to use conditional formating and borders
such as
formula is =(mod(row(),2)=1)*(mod(column(),2)=1)
border all around for format
may do what you want

"Shading cells for the web" wrote:

I would like to distinguish adjacent cells from each other using patterns or
something other than color. Color works well for the display on the web page,
but when the document is printed on black and white printers the color is
lost.