I almost can't read the chat, I can't remember that the chat was like this. Is there a way to disable the shadows below it? I have a screenshot included.
You can increase the font size to make the text easier to read.
In order to increase the font size in the game, you should go to Settings (available by hitting the [Esc] key) and select the Video option. Once there, they should use the Custom Scale slider under Interface.
You can increase the size of both the font and the UI by sliding the scale to the right.