As you are researching the "best way" to do this, a term that has been used for many years is "null pixel". Perhaps using that as a search item will...
I found another way which might work - I'm using wled and in version 14 (maybe before - never checked) there's a way to map the led layout - so i can...
When you spread the pixel grid, the vertical segments will be evenly spaced, so that will not be ideal. I would just create a pixel grid / matrix of...