When I first attached a 280 ohm resistor in series with a 5mm red LED, the word on the street was that LEDs were low power, forever-lasting devices that would just about completely replace incandescent bulbs for simple binary indicators. LEDs spent a brief period as the numerical display device of choice too, until supplanted by the LCD. Regardless, the bottom line was that LEDs were really easy to work with. Just put that resistor in series – usually, you didn’t even need to do the ohms law calculation – rules of thumb were good enough.
Riedon is a major supplier to LED market.