A system for providing non-standard characters over a network is provided. The system includes: (a) a non-standard character server coupled to the network, (b) a character database coupled to the server, and (c) one or more client terminals coupled to the network. A user of each client terminal may create a non-standard character and send a non-standard character index issuance request for the created non-standard character to the non-standard character server. The non-standard character server receives the non-standard character index issuance request including an image of the non-standard character created by the client terminal, automatically assigns an index number to the received image of the non-standard character, stores the received image of the non-standard character and the index number assigned thereto in the character database, and sends the index number assigned to the received image of the non-standard character to all of the client terminals on the network.