This works for me under Perl5.8.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Image::Magick;
my($image);
$image = Image::Magick->new;
$image->Set(size=>'200x50');
$image->ReadImage('xc:blue');
$image->Annotate( font=>'Generic.ttf', text=>"Hello, JOE!",
pointsize=>28, stroke=>'red', fill=>'red', x=>20, y=>25); # this is on
+e line 
$image->Write(filename=>"$0.png", compression=>'None');
[download]