Before ASCII was developed, the encodings in use included 26 alphabetic characters, 10 numerical digits, and from 11 to 25 special graphic symbols.
bᵻfˌoːɹ ˈæski wʌz dɪvˈɛləpt, ðɪ ɛŋkˈoʊdɪŋz ɪn jˈuːs ɪŋklˈuːdᵻd twˈɛnti sˈɪks ˌælfəbˈɛɾɪk kˈæɹɪktɚz, tˈɛn nuːmˈɛɹɪkəl dˈɪdʒɪts, ænd fɹʌm ɪlˈɛvən tə twˈɛnti fˈaɪv spˈɛʃəl ɡɹˈæfɪk sˈɪmbəlz.