Sometimes the units used to describe the distances can be confusing. If your not aware, #Mils is an SAE unit and not millimetres which is of course metric. Just wanted to clarify that first. When it comes to silk screening, theirs really no rules carved in stone. It comes down to the amount of space available. Silks should have enough space from the pads to prevent coverage during production as there may be some deviation. So 0.5mm sounds pretty good. Silk references should be legible so .6mm height is probably a good lower limit.
On Kicad the Silks are just outside the Fabrication lines. The fabrication lines are the actual dimensions of the component and aren't usually printed.
When references are used, either the component number is used or the value but never both.
References should be the same orientation.
In areas where many components are clustered together, the references can be listed in another location where there is space as long as the list closely represents the location of each component in the cluster.
If there is no space for any silk printing then it's permissible to omit completely.
Again theirs no gospel rules, but its always a good idea to consult the fabricator about any possible limitations of the equipment they are using.