PDF and PostScript Tools
All these are free, not shareware
PDF Creators
PaperlessPrinter
Create PDFs and image files from nearly any application. Free for non-commercial use but nags you to buy. Just press Cancel at the nag screen. If you are eligible for free use, this is the one I recommend. On my system, it produces pdf files with text that can be searched or copied and pasted. Didn't install quite correctly for me and I had to manually set the printer port to Winserve, rather than LPT1.
PDFCreator
PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDFs and image files from nearly any application. Installs a special printer driver and Ghostscript to "print" a postscript file and then transparently convert it to PDF format. Offers similar control to PaperlessPrinter, but is rather slow. Installed perfectly for me on both Windows 98 and 2000 and produces the best output of the totally free pdf creators. See my tips and hints.
CutePDF Writer
Free version of commercial PDF creation software. Create a PDF file from just about any Windows program. Just enough help to get you going, but installed perfectly for me. Works in much the same way as PDFCreator. See my tips and hints.
PDF995
Annoying popups mar this excellent program. I'm sure it would be unethical of me to suggest that you use a popup killer to get round that. Works the same way as CutePDF. Add-ons include PDFEdit995 to fine-tune the PDF you have created. See my tips and hints.
FreeDist
A freeware frontend for Ghostscript (below), which must be downloaded and installed separately. It will watch in a folder for postscript files to be placed in and converts them automatically to PDF. It can also append multiple postscript files or PDF files to one PDF. See my tips and hints.
Ghostscript (& Ghostview)
Ghostscript (together with Ghostview) allows PostScript files to be viewed, printed, or converted to PDF. Most of free PDF creator programs on this page include part of Ghostscript, but if you want to try FreeDist, then download both Ghostscript (with either GNU or AFPL licence) and GSView.
OpenOffice.org
Possibly a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but OpenOffice (from version 1.1 on) includes direct output to PDF with none of the font problems that bedevil other solutions, and the resulting PDF file is completely searchable. Massive program (Over 60M file to download), but top quality. (Used to be StarOffice.)
PostScript Fonts
Type 1 Fonts
PostScript fonts should work better than TrueType ones in PDF documents. Here are some free Type 1 fonts I have collected
 Adobe Utopia, made freely available via the X-community for LaTex.
Bitstream Charter, made freely available in the same way
IBM Courier, also made freely available
URW versions of 35 base Postscript fonts, included with Ghostscript
Some plain-ish fonts. (I suspect some are the poorer quality "unhinted" Type 3. Quick check: Look at lower case "m" in a small font-size and see if the arches are equal in size.)
Some fancy and some poor quality plug-ugly fonts, including some old favorites
Other utilities
Adobe Acrobat Reader
I don't suppose you would be reading this page if you didn't already have Adobe's free Acrobat Reader for PDF files, but here it is.
Adobe Reader Speedup
Simple application to help make the loading time of Adobe's Acrobat Reader software bearable for everyday use. AR SpeedUp only needs to be used once (a process taking only a few seconds) and then your Reader will be transformed forever.
Adobe Type Manager Light
Windows 95, 98 and NT required Adobe Type Manager to display and print PostScript fonts. More recent versions can still gain some added functionality by this free download.
PDF tips and hints
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