Tips for Text Placement on Images
I tend to avoid chunky text as a personal preference, because while I want the text to be readable and look nice, I also don't want it to steal the show from the image itself.
Choose one place for text. The eye is going to be drawn towards a focal point, then roam to take in the rest of the image. You want the eye to do this naturally, and that doesn't happen if the focus is bouncing from side to side. Often this means you have less viable space to work with, but blank space is not the enemy! It can in fact make your text look better.
Gif sets let you spread out the text to let it breathe easier, but if you absolutely have to be able to fit a lot of text into one image, still try to keep it as unobtrusive as possible. Having it set in the same place for each gif in the set will go a long way toward making the overall effect much better.
Here I've chosen a more complimentary font, added a drop shadow at 75% opacity, with a 1px black stroke at 10% opacity, then dropped the whole layer's opacity to 60% for the first line and 50% for the second. With the different opacities of each line, the eye is drawn toward the brighter line first.
I've also kept the text white. This means it'll be more legible over a broader range of colors, which is something very useful in a gif set.
I wanted the text to be less obtrusive, so I changed the font size for the second line to slightly smaller, and made it italics for emphasis despite the smaller size. I also changed the tracking in the first line, which is the space between the characters of the words. There will be times when a font looks almost perfect, but it needs help in fitting better. This is when tracking is your friend.
The most important thing is to make sure it's readable. If you're making a gif this is especially important, because the lighting and coloring behind the text is going to change.
Make a black and white layer above the others. If you can't read it, go back and adjust everything until you can. This may even mean choosing a different font, and essentially starting all over. Here you can see the text blends well with the image, but it's also a little on the dim side overall.
Here I've fixed the problem by adding a Levels adjustment layer below the text layer(s), as well as a Color Balance adjustment layer.
This works the same for a gif, it just takes a little longer to be sure the text is readable throughout the loop.
Typography 101: The Basics
A Guide to Web Typography
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