As part of generating a digital catalog, a creative professional interacts with digital content via a user interface to specify an arrangement of the digital content in relation to each other. This is used by a digital layout creation system to generate a layout block that is to serve as a basis for digital catalog entries in the digital catalog. As part of arranging the digital content, the digital layout creation system generates metadata automatically and without user intervention in real time that specifies the arrangement of the digital content and what digital content is associated as part of that arrangement. Once a desired arrangement is achieved by the creative professional, an input is received by the digital layout creation system to create a layout block that is used as a basis to generate digital catalog entries of a digital catalog.