An (n , m) -graph is characterized by n types of arcs and m types of edges. A homomorphism of an (n , m) -graph G to an (n , m) -graph H , is a vertex mapping that preserves adjacency, direction, and type. The (n , m) -chromatic number of G , denoted by χ n , m (G) , is the minimum value of | V (H) | such that there exists a homomorphism of G to H. The theory of homomorphisms of (n , m) -graphs have connections with graph theoretic concepts like harmonious coloring, nowhere-zero flows; with other mathematical topics like binary predicate logic, Coxeter groups; and has application to the Query Evaluation Problem (QEP) in graph database. In this article, we show that the arboricity of G is bounded by a function of χ n , m (G) but not the other way around. Additionally, we show that the acyclic chromatic number of G is bounded by a function of χ n , m (G) , a result already known in the reverse direction. Furthermore, we prove that the (n , m) -chromatic number for the family of graphs with maximum average degree less than 2 + 2 4 (2 n + m) − 1 , including the subfamily of planar graphs with girth at least 8 (2 n + m) , equals 2 (2 n + m) + 1. This improves upon previous findings, which proved the (n , m) -chromatic number for planar graphs with girth at least 10 (2 n + m) − 4 is 2 (2 n + m) + 1. It is established that the (n , m) -chromatic number for the family T 2 of partial 2-trees is both bounded below and above by quadratic functions of (2 n + m) , with the lower bound being tight when (2 n + m) = 2. We prove 14 ≤ χ (0 , 3) (T 2) ≤ 15 and 14 ≤ χ (1 , 1) (T 2) ≤ 21 which improves both known lower bounds and the former upper bound. Moreover, for the latter upper bound, to the best of our knowledge we provide the first theoretical proof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]