Many Java apps don't use anti-aliased fonts by default, despite the capability of Swing to provide them. How can you coerce an arbitrary Java application to use AA fonts? Both for applications I'm running and applications I'm developing.
If you have access to the source, you can do this in the main method, before creating the first JFrame:
// enable anti-aliased text:
System.setProperty("awt.useSystemAAFontSettings","on");
or, (if you do not have access to the source, or if this is easier) you can simply pass the system properties above into the JVM by adding these options to the command line:
-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=on