Using shading and JPG or BMP pictures then to get fat shapes. I normally use JPG for my text in my server text shape. This allow me to re-size shape without having to deal with text size and quality. I also use JPG for symbols not part of text fonts.
Any idea on how to reduce shape size without affecting the quality too much?
Vector images might be a solution. Visio can work with them. *.svg
It's A solution there might be more though... I don't know
There's a trick in this article: Resize Text With Metafiles! (http://www.visguy.com/2007/08/24/resize-text-with-metafiles/) that will help you with your text.