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The service manual I have for my 92 kdx says to turn the carb upside down and set float to 16mm.
Simple enough... I've seen two other service drawings on the web that show to hold the carb at an angle with the float tang just touching the spring pin in the float valve and set to 16mm. This changes the height when upside down significantly.

Which is right??

The float needle has a spring loaded pin in it. with the carb how ever you want to hold it make sure that the spring loaded pin is not compressed. So on it's side may be easier.

The Kawasaki manual I have says nothing of this. I've set it with the needle compressed and the bike runs pretty good. If I change it to the other method I'll be moving the float near 7 mm. How much can this affect the way the bike runs. Will I notice a change?

If you set it to 16mm with the needle compressed, you will have less gas in the float bowl than if you had set it with the needle just touching the float tab (assuming you set it to the same 16mm dimension). Now, the question is how well it runs on the setting you have chosen. If you have no problems with going lean after long dips into the power (large throttle openings for 20-30 seconds at a time), then you are probably okay. The risk you run with a float height that is on the low side of optimal is that with less fuel in the bowl, you might starve for fuel after a long time at wide open throttle with engine damage the unfortunate result. If you get lean knock or ping after a long dip into the power, your float height is too low.

Now the flip side of this is if the float height is set to leave too much fuel in the bowl. Then, you'll be splashing excess fuel into the intake over bumps or on hills, which will make the bike run rich and kill your fuel economy.

I'd say run it as is for now, do a couple long wide open pulls, and if there is no pinging or knocking, leave it.

Makes sense. Thanks for the help.