From what I see in the picture... your text is coming out as brightly as mine does, but your screen is like, quite a bit darker than mine.

You could try turning off shadows to see if that helps make things a little less black *options > configuration > system > shadows on/off*

As for the washed out colours, some of it may be accountable to weather, Thanalan has dust storms during the day which makes seeing anything quite difficult, La Noscea has wind and fog effects, and Black Shroud.... it always rains in Black Shroud. When it's nice and sunny though the game is very bright and colourfull.