Reptilian creature card test

The problem with the text is two-fold.

One, you need to use a font that is easier on the eye to read. Most fonts are not well suited for use in small text size situations.

Two, the outline or outer edge of the text is a different color from the letters (and numbers at the bottom). This thin edge of black color visually eats away at the white color area of the text. It all goes back to visual contrast. The wood grain does not provide sufficient contrast for the white text, alone, so the black edging/outline provides some degree of sharper contrast to the white of the text. The way that you have done it presents a problem, though. You have traded one problem for another.

I use Photofiltre a lot, and in that program, what you are doing is a text effect called Stroke. I don't use Photoshop or GIMP, so I am not sure what it is called in those programs. I used to have a an image editing program from Ulead which had an option/effect that would fix the problem your text suffers from. That was years ago, though, and I no longer recall what that effect was called. Basically, it would make a wider area of black around the text, and it eliminated the outline effect (Stroke) that you are using on your text, here.

To fix the problem of the font, itself, you need to change the font that you are using for your small text.