Trying to convert pdf to text for free
Here are the steps I used to install and use xpdf via Homebrew.


Install Homebrew's dependencies:

xcode-select --install

Install Homebrew from their website: 

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

Do what it tells you to complete the Homebrew installation.
Verify that Homebrew is happy and functioning to spec.

brew doctor

Next install xpdf and its dependencies:

brew install Caskroom/cask/xquartz

brew install xpdf

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.