I have a video in Final Cut Express 4 where I place text on the screen to match with the person who's talking...something like a closed-caption effect (although not cc).

The font is Lucida Grande which is the default font coming up when I click "Text" in the "Effects" panel.

It looks great. However, on exporting the file the text downgrades alot, it looks pixellated even. I exported it as "self-contained" and then unticked self-contained and re-exported it, but that doesn't help. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Helen
The quality will/can be directly affected by your export codec/format, and further, how you then view that export. For example, if you export using the DV codec then text and graphics quality will be adversely affected. If you then view that on your Mac, rather than on an interlaced TV screen as it is intended to be viewed, then the quality you see will not be representative of the real quality of the image. Does that make sense?
Post back with some specific details of your source and target settings, your workflow, and who your audience is / how it will be viewed by your audience. Hopefully that will help you get the info you need to move ahead with your project.
Cheers
Andy