Obsolete commands do not support LATEX 2ε ’s new font
selection scheme, or NFSS. {\bf foo}, for example, resets all font attributes which had been
set earlier before it prints foo in bold face. This is why you cannot simply define a bold-italics
style by{\it \bf Test} only. (This definition will produce: Test.) On the other hand,
the new commands \textbf{\textit{Test}} will behave as expected producing: Test.
Apart from that, with the former commands there is no ‘italic correction’, cf. for instance
halfhearted ({\it half}hearted) to half hearted (\textit{half}hearted).
About obsolete \centerline:
The \centerline command is another TEX command you should not use. On the one hand
\centerline is incompatible with some LATEX packages, such as color.sty. On the other hand
the package may yield unexpected results.
inspired by https://www.ctan.org/pkg/l2tabu and https://www.ctan.org/pkg/nag
\iffalse
) code.\bfseries
,\rmfamily
.\begin{center}\end{center}
.This increases stability in future use, I hope. Visually, there is no changes (tested even with TexLive 2014 at overleaf) in resulting PDF.
Quote about obsolete
\bf
from translated l2tabu:About obsolete
\centerline
: