Are there any rules for labeling, typography, and reading direction?

[woekan]

If I look at a map from the famous Cartographer Willem Blaeu, I can notice the following.

Ocean labels - Small caps starting with a capital character. Wide tracking between characters.
Continent labels - Small caps, sometimes starting with capital character, sometimes without.
Country labels - Normal characters, Bold, starting with a capital character.
City - Small characters, italic, starting with a capital character.

Mountain ranges - Small characters, italic, starting with a capital character
Lakes - ?
Rivers - ?
Forests - ?

Are there any rules for labeling?
At what side of a city icon should I add the labels, above or below?
What side do I tilt my text when a mountain or a river is placed vertically?

Would love to hear you guys opinion about this.

[ChickPea]

Take a look at the PDF in this thread. It's considered 'the bible' for typography on maps.

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=12373

[woekan]

Exacly what i needed. Thank you!

[Freodin]

Consider that most "rules", like this very informative essay linked, are developements of an era when cartography became "science" instead of "art".
So basically, the less "sciency" you go with your maps, the more leeway you have with rules.