Carol Summers was widely known as one of America's foremost printmakers, creating works by woodcut process. Summers created his prints through a process he developed in the 1950s that became known in as the "Carol Summers technique": soaking large blocks of wood in ink, he placed them in patterns on one side of a piece of paper in order to, as one reviewer described his work, "give beautiful, blurry, shapes to the other side. The results are simple, decorative and uniquely vibrant."

Summers's work is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

In addition to his art, Summers had a career as a teacher, serving as an instructor at Hunter College, the Brooklyn Museum School, Pratt Graphics Center, and Columbia University