The qualifier signed or unsigned may be applied to char or any integer.
unsigned numbers are always positive or zero, and obey the laws of arithmetic
modulo 2n, where n is the number of bits in the type. So, for instance, if chars
are 8 bits, unsigned char variables have values between 0 and 255, while
signed chars have values between -128 and 127 (in a two’s complement
machine). Whether plain chars are signed or unsigned is machine-dependent,
but printable characters are always positive.
[The C Programming Language (second edition, Prentice Hall) by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. RitchieS] p. 36
