This is a really easy fix; one needs to add self._linespacing to matplotlib.text.Text.get_prop_tup, but it needs tests, etc., which I don't have time for at the moment, so tagging new-contributor-friendly.

Can I take a crack at this? I would like to contribute to matplotlib.

Sure, no need to ask, just follow the changes that I outlined and open a PR.

I am trying to try out how to test functions in matplotlib. I ran the sample test on the documentation:
python tests.py "matplotlib.tests.test_simplification:test_clipping"

but got the following error:

Python byte-compilation optimization level: 0
Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "tests.py", line 46, in <module>
        success = test(argv=sys.argv[0:1] + extra_args, switch_backend_warn=False)
TypeError: test() got an unexpected keyword argument 'argv'

I am not sure how to proceed if I can't test my changes.

@vincentpham1991 what OS/platform are you on?

I am using Mac OS 10.11.6

can you describe your setup a little further?
(e.g., how up-to-date is your source branch? are you using virtual or conda environments? which version of python? how did you install your development version of matplotlib?)

I solved the issue I mentioned above but am running into another issue:
Whenever I run the test, I get the following error, causing tests that compares against images to fail:

UserWarning: matplotlib is not built with the correct FreeType version to run tests.  Set      
local_freetype=True in setup.cfg and rebuild. Expect many image comparison failures below.
Expected freetype version 2.7.0. Found freetype version 2.6.1. Freetype build type is not local

I pulled from the master branch from github a couple of hours ago, so it should be the latest version. I just pulled again to confirm.

From the package, I ran python setup.py develop.

I am using the base version of python installed by brew. My current version is Python 2.7.10.

I renamed setup.cfg.template to setup.cfg and uncommented:

local_freetype=True

As well as:

tests = True
sample_data = True
toolkits = True

Make sure to change setup.cfg before running python setup.py develop (though I prefer pip install -e .).

Yes, I made the change to setup.cfg before running the setup.

If you installed, changed the config, and then installed again, it may still be re-using the objects built and linked from the first install. The python builder is smart, but not that smart.

See http://matplotlib.org/devdocs/devel/contributing.html#retrieving-and-installing-the-latest-version-of-the-code