The cmap package is intended to make the PDF files generated by pdflatex both searchable and copyable in acrobat reader and other compliant PDF viewers. Just include the \usepackage{cmap} at the beginning of your preamble, and it will pre-load the needed CMap translations for the fonts used in the document. It works for Type 1 fonts, and also for Type 3 fonts with recent versions of pdftex. The main limitation currently is the inability to work with virtual fonts, because of limitations of pdftex, but may be resolved in a future version of pdftex. The author is Vladimir Volovich. See also pdftex.