making text more "readable"

[Pfap]

When using the draw_text function by itself my words or score always seem flat. Do you have any tricks to make your text easier to read or a way to make it "pop"? I usually just put a shadow behind my words and scores to give them some depth and will probably continue to, but what styles do you use? Another trick I've seen utilized is by always putting your text in a box. But that seems to be a design problem with me where everything in my game ends up in a box giving it a more restrictive feeling.

 

[Binsk]

Box, shadow, contrasting color (to the game behind), outlined, larger text, animated; there are numerous ways to make something stand out.

 

[Pfap]

I probably have this in the wrong section of the forum. Should probs be in the design category. I've been playing around with a way to make my score text pop, and I made an oval sprite and I'm using that to house my score. Different than a box lol, still just a visual boundary.