Bicycle Mechanics - Advice needed on brifter and drop bar positioning

I am adjusting a 2nd hand bike and I am not sure how to setup the handlebars and brifters. The bike is a tourer and the previous owner found the ride position a bit long and low and hence moved the brifters more towards the saddle so the hoods are angled up. I also want a more relaxed position so I am going to fit a stem extender. However, I don't find the current position of the brifters to work very well so I am thinking that I will move them back forwards again but I am not sure what the default position relative to the bars is.

I have never ridden a drop handled bike like this before so I am a bit in the dark. If anyone knows of a website that shows how to postion the handlebars (ie rotation in the clamp) and wear on the bar curve to fix the brifters it would be very helpful.

Old school guidelines start the bars with the flat at the bottom of the drops parallell to the ground. The brifters are then setup so that when the bars are set on a table, the tip of the brake lever just touches the table (this would put the tip of the lever just parallell to the bottom edge of that flat).

It is common these days to see the flat at the bottom of the drops pointing down more, sometimes so far as to point at the rear axle. There doesn't seem to be any common point to set the brifters under these circumstances. Some still point straight down, some angle slightly forward. Most people want the brifters close enough to be comfortably reached from the drops.

Thanks for the reply. It is for a touring bike and I can't see me using the bottom of the drops much tbh. I am fitting inline brakes and expects to be mostly on the hoods and the top horizontal. Hence the main thing I want to achieve with the brifter position is comfort when riding on the hoods. I don't find them comfortable at the moment but the last bike I rode had bullhorn bars which were more solid to hold and hence were more comfortable. Is fixing the brifters so that the hoods line up flat with the top of the drops the best for comfort?

I suppose it is a bit individual but I just wondered what the standard was and then I can adjust from there.

Is fixing the brifters so that the hoods line up flat with the top of the drops the best for comfort?
For me that would be way too low for comfortably riding on the hoods, where I spend quite a bit of time.

The angle depends on personal preference and on the shape of the brifters. What are you using?

They are shimano integra. Do you have them angled up then?