For what I’m doing (simple text overlay on an image) this is the setup I’m using. This is based on an article I saw using something to autogenerate images for rails.
require 'RMagick'
image = Magick::Image.read("input").first.minify
drawable = Magick::Draw.new
drawable.pointsize = 18.0
drawable.gravity = Magick::SouthEastGravity
drawable.font_weight = Magick::BoldWeight
tm = drawable.get_type_metrics(image, "numericalruby.com")
drawable.fill = 'red'
drawable.opacity(0.25)
drawable.roundrectangle(image.columns-tm.width-30,image.rows-tm.height-30,image.columns-10,image.rows-10,7,7)
drawable.draw(image)
drawable.annotate(image,0,0,20,20,"numericalruby.com") {self.fill='black'}
image.write("output")
Some good info also available on the RMagick site