vertical alignment of text

Hi all,

Is there a way to align text vertically so that the characters sit on a continuous line ?
When I do
text(.5, .5, ‘abc’, verticalalignment=‘center’)
text(.6, .5, ‘pqr’, verticalalignment=‘center’)
both words are not aligned since the bars of p and q push the text upwards. I get similar problems with ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ alignment.

Thanks,

David