Yes, it's always better for SEO to use the text-based title and description, though the Alt tag does help a bit.
However, I have recently started using google fonts to create better-looking headers, where before I used images. For some examples, I'm using text titles with google fonts for
www.ichingstargarden.com (being built right now, trying to figure out custom header menus so please ignore positioning of the title - the menus are throwing it off at the mo);
www.ichinglivingchange.org;
www.herbsandanimals.com. I still have an image, I think, in place at
www.cellphonetaskforce.org, and plan to replace that soon.
Go to
http://www.google.com/webfonts to browse and get code - code will need to be placed into the header.php file that will call the fonts, and you don't want to use too many; then just specify the font as normal where needed.
You'll have to update the header.php file manually each time you upgrade Atahualpa so be sure to save the bit of code or be willing to go back and find your font and code again.