Can a shift register be used to drive LEDs that need to be pulled down to light up?

Question

In my limited experience I have only used RGB LEDs that have a common anode connected to ground and then are lit up by pulling up on the pin connected to the LED colour pins. I currently have 3 Adafruit RGB LED Rugged Metal Push Buttons I intend to use in a project. The LEDs in these buttons are controlled by connecting a common cathode to a 5v supply and then lit up by pulling down on the output pins connected to the LED colour pins. The plan was to use a pair of shift registers to control the LEDs to minimise the number of output pins used. Therefore my question is, can I still use the shift registers to control the RGB LEDs even though the LEDs need to be pulled down instead of up?

Answer 1

The 'C' pin is for common and it refers to the common-anode, not cathode.

Yes, you can use a 5V shift-register provided you stay within the current limitations by using a high enough value series resistor for each LED.

Just make the SR output '0' for 'on' and '1' for off.

^{simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab}