title_body: Is it possible to only extract text from a PDF file for free?
upvoted_answer: Yes, there is.
  The program is called Calibre. There is even command line processing support which I have used to batch process multiple pdf files' 'extraction'. By adjusting the parameters, one can extract standard text. Of course, some pdf files are an assembly of images and contain no actual text. But give this 'a shot' :)