ah! but dimmer is not the question, its how to reduce component count and still be safe!
ive got 16 right now running off of 4 resistors in a matrix, and the visible difference is negligible, its also running tru a 74164, that for testing that was set with 8 bits of data (1 nibble anode control, 1 nibble cathode) and never clocked or fiddled with again so all 16 are on at once with no cycling, voltages are fine and total current per row is as expected, individual currents on the led's haven't been measured but i am stubborn and will do it if need be