Text in Paint Shop Pro 9 (PSP9)

Okay, so I'm having trouble getting the text to cooperate. The three icons below are all Times New Roman, 10pt, with no settings changed except anti-alias.


(Settings: stroke 0, leading -0.3, auto kern, kerning: 200; tracking: 0; etc.)

See? None of them look good.

The only smallish text I can get to look right is Perpetua at 6pt:



But that's kind of small. And here's Times New Roman at the same settings, 6 pt:



What's going on? =P Is it something really simple that I don't know about?

(And yes, all the pictures are of a very evil-looking Bilbo from LOTR.)

ETA: Basically, what I want to do is the get the text smoother and more even while still being clear. Basically, more professional-looking. Like these:


By objection_icons and iconbust