question...

How do you get that really readable small text on icons? Pretty much everyone can do it, it's those white letters with a black border I think. And mine always turn out blurry or unreadable even if they are any bigger. If anybody has any advice whatsoever on this, it would be greatly appreciated. What size/type/formatting (bold etc) font should you use? What fill color or edge color, or edge thickness? How do you get the font and the picture to be so non-blurry? Do you size the pic down to 100px first and then crop it, add text, whatever, or do you size it down after everything else is done? Do you mess with the sharpness/brightness/contrast settings?
Thanks so much to anyone who comments!