The seven bits provide the basic set of 128 ASCII characters. The 8th bit adds storage for another 128 symbols, and these symbols vary from font to font and system to system. For example ...

I am an identity thief—identithief, if you’re goofy like me. I first consciously stole an identity when I applied for a U.S.

The second half of the ASCII character set (characters 128 through 255). Designed in the 1960s, ASCII was originally a 7-bit code (0 through 127). To accommodate foreign languages, the DOS code ...