Why Does iMovie Distort Imported Graphic Text?

Question

In an effort to get around the fact that iMovie's titles don't display the same way after rendering the same way they do when previewing them, I tried to make my own titles as clips. I took the same colored gradient background still clip that I'm using in iMovie, imported it into several graphics apps (Intaglio, OmniGraffle Pro, Photoshop Elements). Then I added the text that I wanted to use as titles for opening and closing credits, and exported the images for use in iMovie, Then I figured I'd just position them in the timeline in sequence, insert crossfade transitions between them, and that would be that.
But it doesn't work. No matter how high a resolution I use in the imported title clips, iMovie renders them all horribly. The text edges are jagged and it looks like garbage. I've tried JPEG, PNG, JP2, TIF, PDF...nothing seems to work. Even the high resolution images exported from Photoshop look like garbage.
Is there any way to get graphic image text to display properly in iMovie...that is, without using iMovie's own built-in titles, which don't display properly and can't be formatted to look good either.
Thanks!

Answer 1

QuickTimeKirk:
Thanks for your reply. Here's some additional info.
Actually, I thought that I had correctly sized the images, but I admit I'm way out of my depth here. I'm an audio guy (using Logic Pro 7.2.3), and fairly adept in that domain. I know very little about video.
I measured the pixel size of the video screen in iMovie, and made an image exactly that size. When that didn't work, I started making images of progressively larger size, including some humongous images in Photoshop. I figured that if I gave iMovie some very high resolution still images, then when iMovie reduces them they shouldn't LOSE resolution. At least, that's the way digital graphics usually work. I guess video is different...
I tried using QuickTime Pro as a workaround. I stuck all the title images in a folder, numbered them sequentially, selected *Open Image Sequence...* under the QuickTime File menu, chose 5 seconds per frame (for 5 JPEG images), and QuickTime opened them as a QuickTime movie. Sure enough, the text displayed with crystal clear, sharp edges in the QuickTime Player. (I used 29.97 fps, the same frame rate I'm using in iMovie.) So, I saved it as a self-contained .mov file, and then I dragged it into iMovie. It still looks like garbage.
I noticed that I have iMovie HD v6.0.3 on my MacBook Pro, so I tried all of the above in that version of the app. All of the still images still look terrible. I'm used *iMovie's Edit:Create Still Frame* command to make the stills, but it's no good. The QuickTime .mov file looks a little better when I import it into iMovie HD v6.0.3 and play it there (the edges are somewhat less jagged, at least), but it's still not anywhere near as crisp and clear as it looks in QuickTime.
If QuickTime can display the text properly and turn it into a movie, why can't iMovie play that movie properly at the same frame rate? Sorry to afflict you with my video newbie ignorance, but I don't get it. This is going to be a problem going forward, because the movie I'm trying to make is full of still images. Basically, it's an audio program (a lecture), with a bunch of visual aids. It seems like iMovie should be able to handle it, but I've got to solve this text displaying problem.
Can you tell me how to "size my image format to match my iMovie Project dimensions"? I ought to be able to do that easily with the graphics apps I have, but how do I determine what those dimensions are?
Meantime, I'll keep trying stuff.
Thanks again!