Trying to convert pdf to text for free

Here are the steps I used to install and use xpdf via Homebrew.

1. Install Homebrew's dependencies:

   xcode-select --install
   

2. Install Homebrew from their website:

   /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
   

3. Do what it tells you to complete the Homebrew installation.

4. Verify that Homebrew is happy and functioning to spec.

   brew doctor
   

5. Next install xpdf and its dependencies:

   brew install Caskroom/cask/xquartz
   
   brew install xpdf
   

6. Finally, use pdftotext, a package that comes with the xpdf suite:

   pdftotext Some_Document.pdf Some_Document.txt
   

The first file name is an existing PDF; the second is the destination. The results were much better than with an (admittedly old) version of Adobe Acrobat. Edit: New (2019) versions of Adobe Acrobat have shown similarly poor results.

Multiple methods.

1. Use Google documents (you will need a Google account)

2. Use Automator (some work required)

You can use Automator to create a workflow that can extract text from PDFs and save it as a text or RTF document.

or an app from the App Store, e.g. PDF to Text