When outputting a document with namespaces the namespace declarations are created at the wrong 'scope' / 'level' in the document. The attache Groovy script show that parsing back in a document just created by XmlNodePrinter demostrates this . Please see attached and error below: [Fatal Error] testout.xml:7:10: The prefix "ns1" for element "ns1:b" is not bound. Exception in thread "main" org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The prefix "ns1" for element "ns1:b" is not bound. at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source) at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source) at groovy.util.XmlParser.parse(XmlParser.java:115) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:95) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.MetaClassHelper.doMethodInvoke(MetaClassHelper.java:599) at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:904) at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:740) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.invokePojoMethod(InvokerHelper.java:761) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.invokeMethod(InvokerHelper.java:749) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.invokeMethodN(ScriptBytecodeAdapter.java:167) at TestPackage.XmlNodePrintNamespaceTestCase.run(XmlNodePrintNamespaceTestCase.groovy:12) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:95) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.MetaClassHelper.doMethodInvoke(MetaClassHelper.java:599) at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:904) at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:740) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.invokePogoMethod(InvokerHelper.java:773) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.invokeMethod(InvokerHelper.java:753) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.runScript(InvokerHelper.java:402) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:95) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.MetaClassHelper.doMethodInvoke(MetaClassHelper.java:599) at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeStaticMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1077) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper.invokeMethod(InvokerHelper.java:744) at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.invokeMethodN(ScriptBytecodeAdapter.java:167) at TestPackage.XmlNodePrintNamespaceTestCase.main(XmlNodePrintNamespaceTestCase.groovy)