Why is the extraction of text from a PDF document such a hassle

When I use a text editing tool such as Microsoft Word then it is quite natural that I can select a portion of text and copy it to the clipboard and paste it in to a window of any other tool. Not so with PDF. At least not with any kind of document. Why is that?

A good PDF printer tool can be amazingly versatile

As the name suggests a PDF printer tool is meant to put the contents of a PDF document onto paper. However, it is surprising how many applications can be built when using a printer tool in collaboration with the Windows Printing Subsystem.

How to process device specific colors in PDF

The chapter about rendering in the PDF standard specifies how to transform colors from one device specific color space to another and gives hints on how to transform calibrated colors to device specific colors. But most implementations ignore those rules and use ICC profiles to characterize the output devices. But, what does this mean for the black-generation, the undercolor-removal and other functions in the graphics state?