If you want to go the XML route and want to learn Formatting objects, today
brings you some happy news:

http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2003-02-19-a.html
A communiqué from Eduardo Gutentag describes the release of the Sun xmlroff
XSL formatter as a SourceForge project. The xmlroff XSL Formatter "is
written in C and currently produces PDF output using the PDFlib library. It
uses libxml2 and libxslt plus the GLib, GObject and Pango libraries that
underlie GTK+ and GNOME, although it does not require either GTK+ or GNOME.
xmlroff represents Sun's newest open source donation is an implementation of
the W3C's Extensible Stylesheet Language specification, also known as the
Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects specification (XSL-FO).
Drawing on previous work in CSS2 and DSSSL and and other information
formatting standards, XSL-FO defines a collection of page layout semantics
in XML -- such as page numbering -- that makes it easier for data to be both
easily navigable through Web-based readers, such as Web browsers or PDF
readers, as well as cleanly read when printed. Sun's open source XSL-FO
engine helps developers to create consistent formatting results for
published data across an array of languages, which equals lower costs
through reduced development time and minimized errors and is designed to
support full internationalization.

More info on XSL-FO at http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/

Peter writes:
> Closest thing I can think of is pstotext which will output the text
> from a pdf file.
>
> pstotext mydoc.pdf > mydoc.txt

This and many other pdf tools can be found at www.pdfzone.com.  Particularly
useful is their tool search: http://www.pdfzone.com/toolbox/toolfilter.html.
A query for free distillers across all platforms produces:

aPDF
PDF viewer for AmigaOS.

AurigaDoc
AurigaDoc is a java-xml based tool used for writing documents in xml format.
The documents can be converted to other open formats like PDF, HTML and RTF.

autopdfprinter
print every pdf file in a watched folder or read pdf filenames from an ascii
file to print them.

BlitPrep
Prepare text files for use with the PDF-Blit BBEdit plug-in.

c42pdf
Fast batch converter of TIFF CCITT4 (scanned images) to PDF.

ClibPDF
ANSI C Source Library for Direct PDF Generation.

Create your PDF
An online form to create a PDF from your text.

FDF Toolkit
Toolkit to develop FDF forms and applications.

FormView
Read/view/search PCL files, convert PCL into PDF.

Free PDF File Creator
Free version of FyTek's PDF File Creator.

FreeDist
The freeware distiller that can also append multiple PDFs.

FreePDF
Uses Ghostscript and Redmon to convert files to PDF.

IndexMaker
Make an index.html file from PDFs, HTML files, VRML files and others.

iText0.30
Java Library that can be used to generate PDF.

Java PDF Library
A Java class library for generate PDF file with optimize, linearize
function. Supports graphics, Japanese, Chinese characters. Also, it can be
use with FDF.

Lout
It is a batch document formatter that can produce PostScript and PDF .

MakePDF
A simple Windows front end for Ghostscript to convert Postscript to PDF.

namedest.ps
Add a named destination to every page in a PDF.

PasPDF
Native PDF Creation for Delphi.

pdcat
Concatenates PDF files.

PDF Filter
Import and Export PDF files with QuarkXPress.

pdf ghostscript tool
Powerful interface for RedMon and ghostscript - the free PostScript and PDF
interpreter.

PDF Mailer
Convert content from any software package into pdf file and print directly
to your email client.

Pdf995
The pdf995 suite of products is a complete solution for your document
publishing needs, offering ease of use, flexibility in format, and
industry-standard security. And all at no cost to you.

PDF-Blit
Out PDF directly from BBEdit and BBEdit Lite.

PDFlib
Library of C routines which allow you to programmatically generate PDFs.

PDFMaker for Microsoft Word 97
Enhanced features when creating PDFs from Word 97 docs.

PDF-o-matic
PDF-o-matic converts Web Pages to PDF On-Line.

pdftex
An extension of TeX that can create PDF output directly.

pdfTeX
A TeX (typesetting system) variant that produces PDF directly.

pdtoc
Creates a PDF file containing links to other PDF files.

Perl-PDF
PDF::Create is a Perl module that allows you to create PDF documents,
possibly on the fly, using a large number of primitives.

pj & pjscript
Java class library for parsing, manipulating, and creating PDFs.

Poor Man's Distiller
Create PDF documents under OS/2.

ps2pdf
Online web distiller for PDF files.

PubSTec Action Plug-in
Launch a file from a hyperlink within Exchange.

PubSTec PDFDraftsman Application
Create PDF files from scratch which include graphic and text elements.

retepPDF
A PDF library for Java.

SearchPrint
A Word 97 Macro for batch printing.

Simple PDF Editor
This simple utility looks like a first versions of the Word but it actually
saves to the PDF format.

Thentech PDF Driver
A Java class library for generating reports and documents in PDF.

VB2PDF
VB5 Class to create PDF.

vPdfCreator
freeware tools for creating PDF files in 32-bit Windows 95/98/NT.

XMLPDF
Java and .Net library for dynamically creating PDF forms and documents

XPDF Generator
PDF Generation DLL. Currently being used to generate reports from Office 97
VBA.

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