diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py
index f41478661e79..67e80611ef10 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py
@@ -178,12 +178,9 @@ def draw_text(self, gc, x, y, s, prop, angle, ismath=False, mtext=None):
 
         if font is None:
             return None
-        if len(s) == 1 and ord(s) > 127:
-            font.load_char(ord(s), flags=flags)
-        else:
-            # We pass '0' for angle here, since it will be rotated (in raster
-            # space) in the following call to draw_text_image).
-            font.set_text(s, 0, flags=flags)
+        # We pass '0' for angle here, since it will be rotated (in raster
+        # space) in the following call to draw_text_image).
+        font.set_text(s, 0, flags=flags)
         font.draw_glyphs_to_bitmap(antialiased=rcParams['text.antialiased'])
         d = font.get_descent() / 64.0
         # The descent needs to be adjusted for the angle.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_text.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_text.py
index fb2d62e075a3..20d3a3ee3d64 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_text.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_text.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 from matplotlib.backend_bases import MouseEvent
 import matplotlib.patches as mpatches
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
-from matplotlib.testing.decorators import image_comparison
+from matplotlib.testing.decorators import check_figures_equal, image_comparison
 
 
 needs_usetex = pytest.mark.skipif(
@@ -621,3 +621,17 @@ def test_wrap_no_wrap():
     text = fig.text(0, 0, 'non wrapped text', wrap=True)
     fig.canvas.draw()
     assert text._get_wrapped_text() == 'non wrapped text'
+
+
+@check_figures_equal(extensions=["png"])
+def test_buffer_size(fig_test, fig_ref):
+    # On old versions of the Agg renderer, large non-ascii single-character
+    # strings (here, "€") would be rendered clipped because the rendering
+    # buffer would be set by the physical size of the smaller "a" character.
+    ax = fig_test.add_subplot()
+    ax.set_yticks([0, 1])
+    ax.set_yticklabels(["€", "a"])
+    ax.yaxis.majorTicks[1].label1.set_color("w")
+    ax = fig_ref.add_subplot()
+    ax.set_yticks([0, 1])
+    ax.set_yticklabels(["€", ""])