In DNN, a Theme is everything that determines the whole look and feel of a page. This includes things like

  1. Colors and logos
  2. Arrangement of panes (the placeholders for content on the page)
  3. Placement of header / footer
  4. Navigation
  5. Footer contents

Since the theme "wraps" everything in the page, it will also be responsible for hidden page-wide functionality like

  1. page title
  2. metadata
  3. loading global javascript or css files