ASCII Summary
A high-level summary of the ASCII character set. See how the 256 codes break down across control characters, printable symbols, and the extended range - with quick-reference cards for each group.
Character Set Breakdown
256
Total Characters
Codes 0-255
33
Control Characters
Codes 0-31, 127
95
Printable Characters
Codes 32-126
128
Extended Characters
Codes 128-255
Control Characters
33 charsNon-printable codes originally designed for hardware signaling. Only Tab (9), Line Feed (10), Carriage Return (13), and Escape (27) remain in common use today.
Printable Characters
95 charsLetters (52)
Extended ASCII
128 charsCharacters 128-255 vary by encoding. The grid below shows the Windows-1252 (CP1252) mapping, the most common in Western computing. Compare other encodings to see how the same byte values map differently.
€128129‚130ƒ131„132…133†134‡135ˆ136‰137Š138‹139Œ140141Ž142143144‘145’146“147”148•149–150—151˜152™153š154›155œ156157ž158Ÿ159NBSP160¡161¢162£163¤164¥165¦166§167¨168©169ª170«171¬172SHY173®174¯175°176±177²178³179´180µ181¶182·183¸184¹185º186»187¼188½189¾190¿191À192Á193Â194Ã195Ä196Å197Æ198Ç199È200É201Ê202Ë203Ì204Í205Î206Ï207Ð208Ñ209Ò210Ó211Ô212Õ213Ö214×215Ø216Ù217Ú218Û219Ü220Ý221Þ222ß223à224á225â226ã227ä228å229æ230ç231è232é233ê234ë235ì236í237î238ï239ð240ñ241ò242ó243ô244õ245ö246÷247ø248ù249ú250û251ü252ý253þ254ÿ255
Key Facts
7-bit encoding - Standard ASCII uses 7 bits, giving exactly 128 code points (0-127). The 8th bit enables the extended range (128-255) but its meaning depends on which encoding is active.
Universal compatibility - The printable range (32-126) is identical across all ASCII-based encodings, including UTF-8, making it the universal common ground for text interchange.
Published in 1963 - ASCII was first published as ASA X3.4-1963 and became the dominant character encoding for the internet until UTF-8 surpassed it in 2007.
Still everywhere - Every modern encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-x, Windows-125x) preserves the original 128 ASCII code points at their same positions.