pdf documents

[Tony Baechler]

Daniel Dalton wrote:
> Does anyone know if it is possible to read pdf documents in a console 
> with speakup?

Yes.

> I don't want to have to use a gui.

So don't use one.


> If so what application should I use?


Try the pdftotext utility from the xpdf package.  You didn't say what 
distro you run but I know it's prepackaged for Debian and probably in 
.rpm.  You could of course compile from source as well.  Note that 
pdftotext won't read files with the no copy and no print bits set.  It 
dumps the pdf file to the same name with a .txt extension which you can 
read with less(1) or more(1).  It might overwrite already existing files 
with the same name and .txt extension as the pdf file you convert.  You 
don't need the other programs in the package.  You used to get it from 
http://www.foolabs.com/ but this might have changed.  You can always get 
source from Debian ftp mirrors.