The old, bounding-box clearance is the default approach for backward compatibility. Thight clearance is done by setting the tight_clearance attribute on a text object to a value that is true. This can be done on a single object by following these steps:

normal vs. tight text clearance example
(source: example.lht)

The same can be done on multiple objects; replace step 1 with "select all text objects to be changed" and step 2 with pressing {e p}.

It is also possible to set up a new routing style that creates new text with the attribute set: