Horrific Titles and Graphics quality in Final Cut Express

That's just a preview ... how does it look when you export it?

Apple-R.

The Viewer displays the media in its native format. The Canvas displays the media after it's been compressed by whatever timeline settings you are using. So, for example, if you are working w/hi-res images and a DV timeline the images will look pristine in the Viewer but look poor, by comparison, in the Canvas because of the DV compression.


Lethal

To add to what Lethal mentioned, your RT playback quality will also have an effect on what the video looks like in the Canvas. If it's set to "Medium" or "Low" (versus "Dynamic" or "Full"), you'll generally notice a distinct difference between what you see in the Viewer and what you see in the Canvas.

Of course, remember that none of this matters after the video is exported - it should be in line with the export codec's capabilities and any overlaid text should appear sharp when playing it back at native resolution.

you also don't have the canvas set to view 100%...

if you're adding graphics/titles, then you need to change your sequence codec to something better than DV/NTSC. you can do this right before your final export.