index.html

## index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
    <title>Text bbox issue</title>

</head>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
    @import url(http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cutive);
    svg text {
        font-family: 'Cutive',Helvetica, sans-serif;
        font-size: 30px;
    }
    #invisible {
      font-family: 'Cutive',Helvetica, sans-serif;
    	visibility: hidden;
    }
</style>
<body>
  	<div id="invisible">now you see me...</div>
    <div id="content"></div>
</body>
<script src="http://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">

    var txts;

    function transformCoordOf(elem) {
      var separator = elem.attr("transform").indexOf(",") > -1 ? "," : " ";
      var trans = elem.attr("transform").split(separator);
      return { x: (trans[0] ? parseFloat(trans[0].split("(")[1]) : 0), y: (trans[1] ?         parseFloat(trans[1].split(")")[0] ): 0) };
	  }

    function positionElements() {
      txts.filter(function(d,i){return i != 0})
        .attr("transform",function(d,i){
          var prev = d3.select(txts[0][i]),
          prevWidth = parseFloat(prev.node().getBoundingClientRect().width)
          prevCoords = transformCoordOf(prev);

          var cur = d3.select(this),
          curWidth = parseFloat(cur.node().getBoundingClientRect().width)
          curCoords = transformCoordOf(cur);

          var y = prevCoords.y,
              x = prevCoords.x + prevWidth + 10;

          return "translate("+x+","+y+")";
          })

      d3.select('#invisible').remove();
    }

  	function init() {
      var names = ["apples","oranges","bananas"]
      var canvas = d3.select("#content")
          .append("svg")
          .attr("width","600px")
          .attr("height","100px");

      txts = canvas.selectAll("text").data(names)
          .enter()
          .append("text")
          .attr("transform","translate(10,50)")
          .text(function(d){return d});

      positionElements();
    }

  	init();
</script>

</html>