According to an embodiment, a reading system includes a reader and a calculator. The reader reads, from a character image, a character that is displayed by a segment display. The calculator performs one of first, second, third, or fourth processing. In the first processing, the calculator calculates a first score based on a state of pixels of the character. In the second processing, the calculator calculates a second score based on a match ratio between the pixels and the extracted pixels. In the third processing, the calculator calculates a third score based on a ratio of a length of the character image in first and second direction. In the fourth processing, the calculator calculates a fourth score based on a comparison result between the detected result and preset patterns. The calculator calculates a certainty of the reading by using one of the first, second, third, or fourth score.