I don't know if you are like me, but I prefer darker themes.

But with Ubuntu no UI interffface is present be default to change the color of the font in Gnome panels. Here the simple way I found.

1. Open a terminal and type:
   Haskell-Code:

   sudo gedit .gtkrc-2.0

2. Then a empty file will open so copy-paste this code:
   Haskell-Code:

   include "/home/autocrosser/.gnome2/panel-fontrc"style "desktop-icon"
   	{
   	NautilusIconContainer::frame_text = 1
   	text[NORMAL] = "#000000"
   	NautilusIconContainer::normal_alpha = 70
   	}
   	class "GtkWidget" style "desktop-icon"
   	#NautilusIconContainer::dark_info_color="#888888"
   	#NautilusIconContainer::light_info_color="#bbbbbb"
   	#NautilusIconContainer::highlight_alpha=20
   	style "panel"
   	{
   	fg[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
   	# fg[PRELIGHT] = "#000000″
   
   	# fg[ACTIVE] = "#000000"
   	# fg[SELECTED] = "#000000″
   
   	# fg[INSENSITIVE] = "#8A857C"
   	# bg[NORMAL] = "#000000″
   
   	# bg[PRELIGHT] = "#dfdfdf"
   	# bg[ACTIVE] = "#D0D0D0″
   
   	# bg[SELECTED] = "#D8BB75″
   
   	# bg[INSENSITIVE] = "#EFEFEF"
   	# base[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
   	# base[PRELIGHT] = "#EFEFEF"
   	# base[ACTIVE] = "#D0D0D0″
   
   	# base[SELECTED] = "#DAB566″
   
   	# base[INSENSITIVE] = "#E8E8E8″
   
   	# text[NORMAL] = "#161616″
   
   	# text[PRELIGHT] = "#000000″
   
   	# text[ACTIVE] = "#000000″
   
   	# text[SELECTED] = "#ffffff"
   	# text[INSENSITIVE] = "#8A857C"
   	}
   	widget "*PanelWidget*" style "panel"
   	widget "*PanelApplet*" style "panel"
   	class "*Panel*" style "panel"
   	widget_class "*Mail*" style "panel"
   	class "*notif*" style "panel"
   	class "*Notif*" style "panel"
   	class "*Tray*" style "panel"
   	class "*tray*" style "panel"

   That time I change the color code of: fg[NORMAL] = "#FFFFFF". You can change this fffor any color by using the #RRGGBB equivalent code.
3. Save. Close the editor. Re-log and Enjoy!

  If you dont know the code for the color you want you can go here, Or you can use gcolor2.   To install it type in a terminal

Haskell-Code:

sudo apt-get install gcolor2

And when you are done, type: gcolor2 and voila!

I hope this little trick will make it eiser for you!

Franky