all my text is pixelated?!

no no. i've experimented with every font. every smoothing setting. every resolution. it's a really weird problem and i probably sound like an idiot for asking about it. but i do think it could only be some corrupted file or something. it's really weird.

i'm not stupid, i promise!

I guess its a possibility, I dont know, are any other fonts looking like that?

do i have to say it again?

"i have experimented with every font."

sorry. i'm just frustrated.

i just tried to uninstall the whole creative suite and reinstall it, and it's still doing the same thing. so i think i probably didn't uninstall it correctly or all the way. the directions i was looking at told me to do so many things...some of which didn't apply to me, but i had a feeling i didn't get it all.

is there a way to just uninstall photoshop CS2 without having to uninstall the whole thing?

i really am sorry. that was really rude. however much i feel like i've been repeating myself, i guess it's always good to be clear.

first of all

IF YOU ARE CREATING SOMETHING THAT WILL BE PRINTED, ESPECIALLY SOMETHING WITH TEXT - CLOSE PHOTOSHOP AND OPEN ILLUSTRATOR.

second of all

if you MUST use photoshop, then 72 dpi is not going to work for you.
your best bet then is to START with a 300 dpi file, not convert it midway like you said you tried.
so, a 300 dpi file with all fonts set to crisp will give you the best output.

try this little experiment though if you want -

in photoshop, create an 8.5 x 11 300dpi file, type out a word or phrase in black and repeat it in multiple sizes down the page, make sure they are all set to 'crisp', print the page.

then in illustrator, create a new file, type out the same phrase in multiple sizes, select them all and go to Type --> Create Outlines, print the page.

compare these two - illustrator wins...fatality.

cheers