Photoshop type being pixelated?

Illustraor uses vectors which can be scaled without distortion whereas Photoshop is based on pixels which distort when sized.

Create your image in photoshop and then open that image in Illustrator. Then you can work with your text.
Also, make sure to create outlines with your text because other computers viewing the file may not have the font you are using.

Best of luck and welcome to Fluther.

Have you removed Anti-Alias? That softens fonts if that’s the effect you’re looking for.

I’m looking for effects in illustrator that I can do

What the heretic says is absolutely correct. Great answer.

But you raised another question in my mind, if you save the work as a pdf, doesn’t that include the fonts so it doesn’t matter if the other computer has them or not?

not if your printers wants the .ai file – then you have to create the outline. Can you make your type look fun (emboss gradient overlay, shadows, glows) in illustrator or can you just have it look like basic type?

Illustrator has all sorts of fun effects just like PS does.

@rooeytoo PDF conversion embeds fonts.

thanks everyone for your help. I figured out a lot about my file.