Improving the Look of Your Graphics and Text

Here's some good post-prod advice on making subtitles (early, but useful):

Tips to Improve your Text (via Larry's Final Cut Newsletter)

1. Avoid lines thinner than 4 pixels, they will flicker
2. Avoid lines that are almost horizontal or almost vertical, they will stair-step
3. Avoid fancy, curvy fonts like Harrington, Chancery, or Savoye
4. Avoid fonts with very thin bars or serifs, such as Engravers, Baskerville, or Modern
5. Avoid point sizes smaller than 24 points
6. Avoid saturated colors, use the Vectorscope if you are unsure
7. Avoid whites brighter than 92% (235 in PhotoShop)
8. Always use drop shadows on any text you want your viewers to read
9. Always keep any text you want viewers to read inside Title Safe
10. Keep text on screen long enough for you to read it three times.

Remember that text always looks better on your computer screen than it does on a TV set. So, if you can't read it inside Final Cut, your viewers won't be able to read it either.